San Francisco and Marin CA
Do you live with obstructive sleep apnea? How about someone you love? This is a serious and well-known sleep breathing disorder that can impact your breathing, your quality of sleep and have far-reaching consequences on your health. When someone develops sleep apnea, they have a serious and chronic condition that must be treated by a qualified medical professional. Ignoring the problem or just hoping it will go away on its own only raises your risk of serious consequences. At Glen Park Dental, we want you to be educated as to the signs of sleep apnea and how we can help. That is why, today on the blog, we provide this guide on what you need to know about sleep apnea.
What happens when someone has sleep apnea?
Someone with this disorder experiences frequent airway blockages whenever they lay down and attempt to sleep. The amount of air that reaches the lungs may be limited, or, airflow may cut off altogether. A person with sleep apnea often snores loudly – and this is considered the most common major symptom of the disorder. You also might make gasping or choking sounds while sleeping. Eventually, oxygen levels diminish to where the brain rouses the body from sleep to resume normal breathing. Each of these blockages is known as an apneic event, and they can occur hundreds of times per night for someone with severe, untreated sleep apnea.
What causes an apneic event?
Most often, someone with sleep apnea experiences airway blockages due to a collapse of soft tissue into the back of the throat. This occurs when the muscles of the upper airway relax when you fall asleep. And when that tissue slides into the throat? As air passes around it, it creates a vibrating sound – which is what creates what you hear when someone snores. Someone who sleeps on their back may have their tongue slide back into the airway, or they may not have enough room in their mouth to accommodate the tongue.
Living with sleep apnea
Someone living with this sleep breathing disorder may frequently feel fatigued. You may feel tired when you wake up, even if you seemingly had a full night of sleep. This occurs because of all those disruptions to the sleep cycle that occur during those apneic events.
Sleep apnea also may lead to poor performance at work or in school, frequently waking up with headaches, difficulty concentrating and unexplainable mood swings or bouts of irritability. If you fail to have sleep apnea properly diagnosed and treated, the continued lack of oxygen while you sleep can have a cascading impact on your health.
You also face an elevated risk of several chronic, systemic ailments, including:
- High blood pressure
- Cardiac disease
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Depression
Am I at risk of sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea can affect patients of any age. However, it is most common between young adulthood and middle age and more prevalent among men than women. You are at higher risk if you are overweight or obese.
Other factors that can influence your susceptibility to sleep apnea include:
- A large neck size, 17 inches or more in men or greater than 16 inches in women
- Hypertension
- Medication that impedes the ability to awaken from sleep
- Frequent consumption of alcohol
- A deviated septum or nasal polyps
- A family history of sleep apnea
Treating sleep apnea in San Francisco and Marin, California
Now that you know the risks associated with sleep apnea, you know the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment. Glen Park Dental can help. We offer oral appliance therapy as a remedy. You wear a customized mouthpiece that brings the lower jaw forward and encourages an open airway throughout the night. Call (415) 585-1500 or contact us online to schedule a consultation.
