Oral Appliances and Dental Sleep Medicine

 When we discuss our health, 3 major areas always come into play when we ask how do we become healthier.

Exercise, Nutrition and Sleep.  The first two are not areas that I will discuss.  Sleep is an area that I am going to discuss because dentistry plays a role here.

Sleep is key to our bodies healing processes and without sleep we die.  Deprive a human of sleep and they will die.  Poor sleep and we do not heal our bodies and quality of life and longevity decrease.

So what do dentists have to do with poor sleep?  For many people, poor sleep has to do with sleep apnea.  A condition where we stop breathing when we sleep.  This cessation of breathing affects our sleep as our body awakes to avoid suffocating.  These constant awakenings, besides other physical effects, affect the quality of our sleep.

Dentists are in a unique position to observe signs in the mouth that may point to sleep apnea.  Dentists can observe signs of bruxism, scalloped tongues, tori, throat form.  These lead a dentist to ask further questions that may point to sleep apnea and cause your dentist to refer you to a medical specialist who is qualified to diagnose Sleep Apnea.

If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, one of the treatment modalities is an oral appliance which helps keep the airway open.  This custom appliance is fabricated by a qualified Dentist.

Dentists are in a unique position to help many people with their sleep.

Enjoying practicing dentistry in Hamilton Ontario.

Any questions, post a comment 😁

www.rondentist.com 

https://thehamiltondentist.com/sleep-apnea-dentist-hamilton.html

thehamiltondentist.com

https://thehamiltondentist.com/images/osa-dentist-video.mp4

All the best

Dr. Ron Barzilay

My Child is grinding his teeth at night and it is driving us crazy! What should we do?

I have had patients come in and ask me this question.  In the past I would have said that there is nothing you can do and they will grow out of it.  Today, I would ask them if the child is also snoring. I would ask a whole range of questions to see if possibly they have a number of different issues.  Depending on the results of our screening I may now refer the child to their family doctor to possibly send the child for a sleep assessment.  We would be concerned regarding the possibility of sleep apnea.  Today we understand that bruxism (teeth grinding) maybe the brains' way of trying to wake someone because the brain may not be getting enough oxygen. There is no question that as the child grows the airway will get larger and the problem of bruxing usually fades.  But you need to ask yourself is it worth waiting if it is an airway problem and your child is not getting enough oxygen to their developing brain.  How many nights without oxygen for a child brain is enough?   For this reason there are pediatric sleep studies and if the child has sleep apnea the treatment usually involves  removal of tonsils and adenoids and possibly orthodontic expansion of the maxilla.  The airway is openned and the child usually does better at school, stops snoring and bruximg and a whole range of other problems tend to improve.
All the best
Having fun doing dentistry in Hamilton Ontario

Dr Ron Barzilay

www.rondentist.com