Treatment for Sleep Apnea
Treatment for Sleep Apnea
If you snore you’ve probably already heard how disruptive your sleep habits can be to the other people who live with you. And that’s never a good thing to hear, especially since it’s involuntary.
You may also be embarrassed by the fact that you snore, but the truth is that snoring can mean you have a deeper problem – sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea can have a far greater impact than bothersome snoring. If your sleep is interrupted and you wake up tired, sleeping past your alarm, or you find yourself losing energy early in the day, it’s possible that sleep apnea is the cause.
Alpha Dental Care would like to help you treat your underlying problem with a sleep apnea mouth guard. You can get a specially designed oral appliance for treatment that can improve your sleep troubles and result in a more restful sleep for you (and others).
How can you tell if you suffer from sleep apnea?
Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea. So the fact that you snore may not be an indication of a larger issue. And it’s likely more troublesome to the people around you than it is to you.
When sleep apnea occurs you actually stop breathing in your sleep, if just for a brief moment. As your body relaxes, your breathing pathways close up, preventing you from taking in the oxygen you need. Your body will often startle awake in order to take a breath.
You may not even realize that you’re waking, because the episodes are often short and you’ll drift right back to sleep. Still, your night’s sleep is severely interrupted, diminishing the quality of your rest.
Some symptoms that you have sleep apnea include:
- Snoring. Sleep apnea sufferers will snore and it’s often constant throughout the night.
- Gasping or Choking. Your body will often gasp for breath at certain points during the night and you may wake up gasping or short of breath.
- Headaches. These may be experienced first thing in the morning when you wake, or throughout the day.
- Fatigue. Due to the obvious poor quality of rest, you will often wake up tired. It may even be difficult to stay awake during the day.
- Loss of Concentration. As a side effect of lack of sleep, sleep apnea sufferers often have trouble concentrating during the day.
If you don’t live and sleep with another person, more than a few of those symptoms should be enough for you to have a sleep study done to verify whether or not you’re suffering from sleep apnea.
If you do live and sleep with another person, they may also be able to tell you whether or not you’re gasping for breath or if you stop breathing often during the night, but a sleep study will give you more certainty of your sleep condition.
The only way to tell for certain whether you have sleep apnea is to complete a sleep study.
Your first step is to book a complimentary sleep consultation at our clinic. We offer take-home sleep studies that you can do right in the comfort of your own home.
Treatments for sleep apnea
The most highly recommended treatment for severe sleep apnea is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine, or CPAP. These machines have masks which are worn at night and, as the name suggests, they continually push air through your breathing passages so there’s no cutoff of oxygen and the pathway doesn’t close.
At Alpha Dental Care, we highly recommend this apparatus for those who suffer from severe sleep apnea. It may not be the most attractive device, but it’s effective!
As an alternative to a CPAP, a sleep apnea mouth guard can also be designed and fitted for your needs. This device, called a Mandibular Advancement Device (MAD), also helps to open your airways while you sleep, to improve sleep quality and your overall health.
A sleep apnea mouth guard can also be used to reduce or eliminate snoring for patients who don’t suffer from sleep apnea, but do snore. Snoring itself isn’t a health risk, but the interruption of sleep to both yourself and others can be disadvantageous.
Do you or your partner need a sleep apnea consultation?
Do you often wake up tired? Does your partner’s snoring keep you awake at night? Are you concerned that the snoring may indicate the deeper problem of sleep apnea?
If any of these symptoms sound familiar, we’re here to help you today.
Our complimentary sleep study consultation can give you all the answers you need to improve your sleep and your health.
