Do You Suffer from Sleep Apnea?
- Posted on: Feb 28 2018
You may have sleep apnea and not even know it. But odds are your partner knows it because of your snoring.
Snoring can seem like a harmless, albeit it is thoroughly annoying, issue. But sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep. It may seem incredible, but people with sleep apnea stop repeatedly breathing while sleeping, sometimes hundreds of times per night. When this happens, the brain and the rest of the body may be getting shorted on oxygen.
At Cosmetic Dentistry Center, we can get you into a night guard to help correct bruxism and properly align your jaw to better open your constricted airways.
Two types of sleep apnea
There are two types of sleep apnea:
- Obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) is the more common form. It is usually caused when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep, blocking the airway.
- Central sleep apnea doesn’t always involve a blocked airway. But breathing still stops because the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. This is due to instability in the respiratory control center.
What happens when a person has sleep apnea?
Because many people don’t know they have sleep apnea, the condition can go untreated. The longer it goes, the more health problems can develop, including:
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Heart failure, irregular heartbeats, and heart attacks.
- Depression
- Worsening of ADHD
- Headaches
Sleep apnea may also be the root of poor performance at work or in school, car crashes, and general underachievement in children and teens.
Do you think you may suffer from sleep apnea? Call us at Cosmetic Dentistry Center, (617) 965-7673. We can find the right mouth guard to help you get a good night’s sleep.
Posted in: Snoring and Sleep Apnea