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

Oral appliance therapy - your dentist may save your life!!

What is oral appliance therapy and can my dentist really save my life?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep related breathing disorder that involves a decrease or complete stop in airflow despite an ongoing effort to breath.  It occurs when the muscles relax during sleep, causing  soft tissues at the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway.

Well let's think about it, air flow stop, that sounds like suffocation.  For people with OSA this can happen a few times an hour to 40, 50, 60, or more times an hour while you sleep and it can be pretty serious.

If left untreated will have impact on your cardiovascular system, increase chance of motor vehicle accidents, psychiatric and behavioral issues, quality of life and productivity issues, endocrine and and neurocognitive issues.

A cpap (continuous positive airway pressure) machine can treat this but this machine is strapped onto you and the compliance is not great, perhaps around 50%.  If you can wear this machine then  your success is close to 100%.  If you can't get used to wearing this then you need to find another solution.

This brings us to the dentist, your dentist can fabricate an appliance (mandibular advancement device) for you that stops your tongue and jaw from falling backwards as you sleep and opens your airway to help you breath.  Many people can tolerate this much better and it again lets you breath while you sleep and perhaps saves your life.

Any questions you have don't hesitate to leave a reply on the blog.

Regards and all the best

Dr. Ron Barzilay

Hamilton Ontario Canada

www.rondentist.com