If you have no energy and are too tired to keep up with your friends and family, you should visit our dental office in Coral Gables, FL to talk about sleep apnea. A simple, non-invasive treatment may be just what you need to feel like yourself again.
To schedule an appointment at Gables Exceptional Dentistry, call (305) 614-2438. We will be happy to discuss your symptoms and help you get the relief you deserve.
Sleep apnea is a breathing condition that makes it difficult for your body to receive sufficient oxygen while you sleep. Without enough oxygen, you will feel drained and sluggish, irritable, and possibly depressed. Since sleep apnea happens while you’re asleep, you may have no idea you have it.
Untreated sleep apnea can cause debilitating symptoms and have a major impact on your oral and overall health. If you have sleep apnea and do not seek treatment, you are at a much higher risk for dental caries, gum disease, mood swings, chronic headaches, clinical depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure, worsening ADHD, and stroke.
With sleep apnea, your body fights for oxygen while you sleep, which taxes your entire system. Beyond the adverse oral and overall health effects, you will feel tired all the time and have trouble focusing. Your overall quality of life will suffer.
The chronic tiredness associated with sleep apnea will make it more difficult to stay alert while you’re awake and slow your reaction time, making it dangerous to drive even short distances. If you suspect you have sleep apnea or you think your spouse or child might, call Gables Exceptional Dentistry right away to learn which treatment options are available to alleviate your symptoms and improve your overall quality of life.
If you snore consistently or your bed partner does, it could be a sign of sleep apnea. Many of our Coral Gables, FL patients find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep because they snore, which is often related to sleep apnea.
Snoring happens when air can’t flow easily through your nose or mouth during sleep, causing tissues in your throat to vibrate and create noise. People who would not normally snore may snore after an evening of cocktails because their throat muscles and tongue relax more than usual and partially obstruct their airway. This is nothing to worry about. Snoring consistently whenever you fall asleep, however, is a sign of disordered sleep and often associated with sleep apnea.
In OSA, the muscles in your airway — especially those around the tongue and jaw — relax too much during sleep and can cause the lower jaw to shift slightly backward, which may also move the tongue toward the back of the throat. As a result, the tongue can partially or completely block the airway, making it difficult to breathe properly. Patients with OSA will snore loudly, gasp for air, or make choking sounds as the body tries to restore airflow, all indications that your body is struggling to get oxygen.
Another contributing factor to OSA is excess soft tissue in the throat. People with obesity are at higher risk because fatty tissue can narrow the airway further, increasing the chance of obstruction during sleep.
In severe cases of OSA, a person will stop breathing several times a minute, amounting to hundreds of times each night. As one might imagine, this is incredibly hard on the body, as all systems require oxygen-rich blood to function properly.
CSA occurs when the brain does not send the proper signals to the muscles that control breathing. As a result, the body “forgets” to breathe for brief periods during sleep. This form of sleep apnea is neurological rather than mechanical, and it cannot be treated by a dentist. Patients with CSA typically need to see a medical specialist for proper diagnosis and treatment.
At Gables Exceptional Dentistry, we provide non-invasive treatment options to patients with OSA, including removable oral appliances. An oral appliance fits over your teeth and keeps your lower jaw in the forward position, preventing your tongue from falling backward and blocking your airway. Some patients do well with an oral appliance alone, while others receive greater benefit from combining an oral appliance with CPAP.
Call to schedule an appointment at Gables Exceptional Dentistry. We would be happy to discuss your health challenges, answer your questions, and talk about possible treatment options if you do indeed have sleep apnea.