We all know someone who snores so loudly that they have been forced to sleep in a different room or even house, and you could still hear the noise.
Sounds funny, doesn’t it. But it’s not.
No matter what topic I try to research in the library, whether it’s temporomandibular disorder, headache, crowded teeth, or weight loss, there are always at least 2-20 articles on sleep apnea.
Have you heard people comment that someone died peacefully in their sleep? If they had sleep apnea, then it was anything but peaceful.
Apnea means that the person’s airway has been cut off, by their tongue, soft palate or nasal passages, or a combination. When that happens, the person is strangled in their sleep, until they can wake up and make themselves breathe again. It is anything but peaceful.
The effort to breathe produces extra strain on the heart, and extra pressure in the lungs, and down to the stomach.
Sleep apnea is associated with high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, reflux,irregular heart rate, and erectile dysfunction, to name just a few things.
Try holding your breath for 2 minutes at a time 35 times an hour, and see what happens to your blood pressure!
The diagnosis of sleep apnea is by a PSG or attended sleep study. The gold standard treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea is CPAP.
The trouble is that well over 50% of people who have been provided with a CPAP do not use it, or do not use it often enough.
The use of a mandibular advancement appliance or MAD can be useful in mild to moderate sleep apnea, and in CPAP intolerant cases of severe sleep apnea.
An MAD can also make CPAP more tolerable by mechanically holding the airway open, and decreasing the flow rate needed for the CPAP.
What is important to remember is that we are dealing with a serious, and possibly fatal medical disorder, with both neurologic and craniofacial growth origins. Any treatment provided in the way of a mandibular appliance MUST be checked by a follow up sleep study to ensure that the sleep apnea is being adequately treated.
Sleep apnea is classified as part of the range of sleep breathing disorders. Not everyone with sleep disordered breathing is a snorer. There is a range of disorders, and all may affect the people who have them. You do not have to be overweight to have sleep disordered breathing, skinny women and children may also suffer from it, although excess weight is a contributing factor.
We will use this blog site to discuss some of the myriad of issues associated with sleep disordered breathing in adults and children.
This is a subject that I believe will change the way that medical, orthodontic, and ear nose and throat specialists practice in the future. It will force us to re-evaluate our thinking on the management of facial growth, the extraction of teeth, and removal of tonsils and adenoids.
If you have any issues that you would like specifically discussed, please contact us.