Sleep Apnea

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious disorder that causes you to involuntarily stop breathing for brief periods of time while you’re sleeping. These periods of breathlessness, called apneic episodes, can last anywhere between 10 seconds and several minutes and can occur hundreds of times a night.

What causes sleep apnea?

The most common cause of sleep apnea is an obstructed airway. A large tongue or a small jaw can obstruct your airway, but obstruction most often happens because the muscles in the back of your throat have become floppy or too relaxed.

Some of the conditions that increase your likelihood of airway obstruction, and thus sleep apnea, include:

• Being overweight
• A thicker neck circumference
• Smoking
• Using alcohol, sedatives, or tranquilizers
• Nasal congestion

Sleep apnea is also more common in men than in women and is seen more frequently in older patients.

What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?

If you’re suffering from sleep apnea, you might notice that you:

• Frequently wake up with a dry or sore throat
• Snore loudly
• Occasionally wake up choking or gasping for air
• Feel sleepy, drained of energy, or grumpy throughout the day
• Have headaches in the morning
• Have restless sleep
• Suffer from forgetfulness, mood changes, or a lack of interest in sex
• Suffer from insomnia or are consistently woken up throughout the night

Some of the indicators that the team at Jones Family Dental will look for when diagnosing your sleep apnea are:

• Worn tooth surfaces that indicate bruxism, or tooth grinding
• Scalloped edges on your tongue that indicate a tongue that doesn’t entirely fit in your jaw
• Redness in your throat that indicates snoring

Do I need to treat my sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is incredibly harmful to your health and should always receive treatment. Apneic episodes interrupt the proper flow of oxygen into your system, which lowers the overall level of oxygen in your blood. If untreated, sleep apnea can lead to:

• Hypertension
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Diabetes
• Worsening of ADHD
• Depression

If you think that you’re suffering from sleep apnea, don’t hesitate to pursue treatment at Jones Family Dental.

How do you treat sleep apnea?

The Jones Family Dental team treats sleep apnea with EMA® (Elastic Mandibular Advancement) appliances. An EMA appliance is a special type of mouthguard that’s fabricated from an impression of your teeth and designed to fit perfectly in your mouth, where it pushes your lower jaw forward while you sleep.

Repositioning your lower jaw helps make room in the back of your throat and increase your airflow during sleep.

An EMA appliance is a popular alternative to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, a device that you wear over your face while you sleep that pumps oxygen in through your nose and mouth. Many patients report that EMA appliances are less invasive and are a bit more comfortable to sleep in.

Don’t go another night with poor sleep. Schedule an appointment with Jones Family Dental today and get the good night’s rest you deserve. You can book your sleep apnea consultation by calling the office or using the convenient online tool.