Do you have symptoms of loud snoring during the night? What about feeling drowsy even after you’ve gotten a full night of sleep? Sleep Apnea is a disorder in which a person’s breathing repeatedly starts and stops throughout the night. This can cause major problems for your heart and possibly even death. Some cases may not be extreme as others, but the disorder needs to be treated as soon as the symptoms are identified. Let’s discuss this under-diagnosed disorder that affects more than 30 million in the United States and what we can do for you here at Smile New Braunfels.
The most common cases of Sleep Apnea are what are known as obstructive. This occurs when the tonsils, certain muscles around the uvula, and the side walls around the throat and tongue relax to the point where they narrow the airway and make it difficult to breathe during a night’s rest. As this occurs, the oxygen levels in your bloodstream will be lowered and, as this goes on, the heart will find it difficult to keep up with. So what can be done about this? The common method is to put patients on a CPAP machine. However, those machines have been found to be uncomfortable. An easier solution for this would be for us to design a custom mouthguard that will hold the lower jaw forward to ease up on the obstruction and make it more adequate for sleeping.
We’d just like to stress once again that Sleep Apnea is a seriously under-diagnosed disorder within the nation. We want you to come in as soon as possible if you find any issues that occur with your sleep patterns or even snoring. Let’s identify this problem early on so we can come up with the best treatment plan for you. Here at Smile New Braunfels, we believe in safe and professional procedures that improve your dental health. Give us a call to set up an appointment at 830-629-8011, and don’t forget to watch our video addressing Sleep Apnea.