Sleep Apnea
Portland, OR
Understanding the Condition and Available Treatment Options
Sleep plays an important role in your overall health. Therefore, suffering from sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, which lower the quality of your sleep, can lead to several general health problems. Fortunately, at Portland City Dental, we can offer you a wide range of dental solutions, including treatments for sleep apnea to help sleep better. If you are suffering from sleep apnea, or have noticed some of the signs and symptoms, read on to understand the condition better, and the available treatment solutions we can offer you.
What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that occurs when you temporarily stop breathing during the night. The interruptions in the breathing can repeatedly occur during the night, with the number of pauses varying based on the severity of the condition. Due to these repeated pauses, your sleep quality is greatly reduced, which can lead to some serious health problems such as stress, anxiety and depression, high blood pressure, liver problems, diabetes, obesity, stroke, and heart disease, among others. In severe cases of the condition, untreated sleep apnea is also a potentially fatal disease.
Types of Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea can be categorized into two types:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
This is the most common type of sleep disorder. It occurs when the air flow from your nose and mouth is obstructed when you are sleeping, thus causing a pause in breathing. The obstruction can be caused by the relaxation of the breathing muscles, or blockage of the airways by a large tongue or elongated tissues (for example, tonsils).
With obstructive sleep apnea, the pauses in breathing repeatedly occur during the night, with each one lasting only a few seconds. When the oxygen levels drop during the paused breathing, the body goes into survival mode - increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, which helps normal breathing to resume.
Central Sleep Apnea
Central sleep apnea is a rare condition, in which the air pathways are not blocked, but the signals between the brain and the breathing muscles are interrupted, leading to a pause in breathing. Just like with the obstructive sleep apnea, when the pause in breathing occurs, your body reacts, thus restarting the breathing.
Common Signs of Sleep Apnea
Since sleep apnea occurs during the night, it might be hard to notice the condition. However, common signs include:
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Snorts, gasps, and choking sounds during the night as your body fights to resume breathing.
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Snoring due to the blocked airways.
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Sleepiness during the day due to poor quality sleep at night.
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Dry mouth or throat when you wake up in the morning.
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Severe headaches in the morning.
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Chronic fatigue and irritability. |
Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a health condition that can be remedied using dental solutions. These solutions include oral appliance therapy, where dental appliances are used to prevent obstruction of the airways when you are sleeping. These dental appliances, which are custom-made, help to reposition the jaw and maintain the position of the tongue, thus preventing blockage of the airways. Obstructions of the airway can also be solved through oral surgery, to remove or reduce the size of blocking tissues.
At Portland City Dental we understand how important good sleep is to your health. Dr. Dan Rodriguez can help to manage the condition, thus improving the quality of your sleep, as well as your health. Call us today at (503) 256-7917 for more information about the condition and our treatment solutions. |
