Sleep Apnea Treatment
Does your partner’s snoring or strange breathing patterns keep you awake at night? Are you concerned that one or more of your family members may suffer from a sleep disorder? If so, it’s time to take action and seek out sleep apnea treatment.
Sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, can cause serious health problems for those affected. But the good news is that this common sleep disorder is manageable with the proper diagnosis and care. At Amigos Dental Care in Salt Lake City, UT, Dr. Todd Petersen and Dr. Tad Tholstrom recognize the signs of sleep apnea and offer a non-invasive treatment for the disorder through tailored oral appliances.
What is sleep apnea, and how can it affect one’s life?
Derived from the Greek word for “breathless,” sleep apnea is a condition that causes the sufferer to repeatedly stop breathing while they’re asleep. These frequent pauses happen when there’s a physical blockage in the airway (obstructive sleep apnea, OSA) or the central nervous system doesn’t adequately control breathing during sleep (central sleep apnea, CSA). As you can imagine, a lack of breathing leads to a lack of oxygen. Fortunately, survival reflexes kick in and force the sleep apnea sufferer to wake up just enough to resume breathing. For those who suffer from sleep apnea, the brain can wake up 10 to 15 times per hour due to this oxygen deficiency.
Even though waking up is a natural reflex designed to keep us alive, it interrupts the sleep cycle and decreases sleep quality. Aside from snoring and ruining everyone else’s sleep, untreated sleep apnea is linked to:
- Daytime fatigue and sleepiness
- Mood changes
- Memory loss
- Concentration problems
- Headaches
- Night sweats
- Restlessness at night
- An increased risk of cardiovascular issues
Minimally-Invasive Sleep Apnea Treatment
At Amigos Dental Care, we offer sleep apnea treatment for the most common form: OSA. Because obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the muscles in the head and neck relax too much and cause the surrounding tissues to press on the windpipe and pinch it off. When this happens, the air in the windpipe cannot pass through.
Dr. Petersen and Dr. Tholstrom offer custom-fit sleep apnea nightguards to prevent obstruction. These particular mouthpieces hold the jaw and tongue in a position that keeps the pressure off the windpipe and allows for more steady breathing. Our Salt Lake City dentists create sleep apnea mouth guards using an intraoral scanner to take digital impressions of the smile and send them to our laboratory to create custom-made oral appliances of biocompatible, BPA-free plastic designed to fit the patient’s mouth. Compared to more extensive OSA treatments (like CPAP), an oral appliance is one of the most affordable and convenient versions of sleep apnea treatment.
Contact Amigos Dental Care for a Simple Fix for Sleep Apnea
Find out if you or a loved one needs sleep apnea treatment for increased sleep quality. For simple and strategic sleep apnea treatment in Salt Lake City, contact Amigos Dental Care by calling (385) 295-1601 or messaging us online.
