When it comes to sleep apnea treatment in Edmond, OK, you may not initially think that a dentist can help you achieve the better night’s sleep you desire. However, no branch of medicine better understands the mouth and how the formation of the jaw and teeth can impact breathing than dentists.

With the Vivos System, our team at Santa Fe Dental can offer patients the advanced sleep apnea treatment in Edmond, OK they’ve been looking for. After all, failure to treat sleep apnea can have a significant impact on your health and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Let’s take a look at sleep apnea, how it can impact your health, and why you should consider receiving sleep apnea treatment in Edmond, OK.

What is Sleep Apnea?

A sleep disorder, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) causes breathing to repeatedly stop and start during sleep.

In patients with OSA sleep, the muscles and soft tissue located in the back of the throat intermittently relax, causing a blockage of the airway to occur. Sensing a lack of oxygen, the brain shocks the body out of sleep, which results in the muscles tightening and the airway reopening.

Unfortunately, once a patient falls back to sleep, the muscles relax and the airway becomes block again. The brain senses the lack of oxygen, shocks the body awake, and the process continues throughout the night.

A patient with severe OSA can experience this cycle of falling asleep and being shocked awake dozens of time an hour.

What Does Sleep Apnea do to the Body?

In order to feel rested the next day, the body needs to receive an ample amount of REM sleep. REM is the type of deep sleep where dreams occur and where the body fully rests and regenerates. If you’ve ever wondered why you don’t feel as rested after a short nap as you do after a few hours of sleep, it’s because napping or dozing doesn’t give the body time to sink into a deep REM sleep.

By having the brain shock the body out of deep sleep every few minutes, patients with OSA don’t receive the type of sleep they need to feel rested and ready to go in the morning.

As result, many apnea patients find themselves tired when waking up in the morning, no matter how many hours of sleep they received the night before.

Not getting enough REM sleep has side effects that include:

• Daytime drowsiness
• An inability to focus
• Morning headaches
• Mood swings and irritability
• Lethargy

Patients with untreated sleep apnea tend to perform worse at school, struggle at work, and develop more serious long-term health problems.

In addition to the symptoms listed above, apnea patients also have a higher risk for developing high blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain, and heart disease.

What are the Signs of Sleep Apnea?

The most obvious and telling sign of OSA is loud nightly snoring. If a bed partner has ever complained about how loudly you snore at night, you should consider undergoing a sleep apnea consultation with your doctor.

In addition to snoring, patients with apnea will stop breathing while asleep, wake suddenly while choking or gasping, and will frequently wakeup with a sore throat or dry mouth.

If you or a bed partner have noticed any of these signs, you need to schedule a sleep test to determine whether you have OSA or another type of sleep apnea.

Additionally, if you experience any of the symptoms, like daytime drowsiness, listed above, you also need to schedule a sleep test.

During a sleep test, your sleep patterns will be monitored and the number of times you stop breathing at night will be counted. The information collected will then be used to determine whether or not you have apnea.

While nightly snoring may seem funny at best and an inconvenience to your bed partner at worse, it can actually be a sign of a much more serious condition. Don’t let sleep apnea ruin another nights rest. Get tested and find out how our team at Santa Fe Dental can help treat your sleep disorder.