How Can My Dentist Treat Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea, especially obstructive sleep apnea, is a common sleep disorder that causes you to involuntarily stop breathing while you sleep. It affects about 26% of adults between the ages of 30-70, but many cases go unreported because patients don’t feel the symptoms warrant attention.

Sleep apnea can lead to a number of more serious conditions, though, so it’s important you get appropriate treatment. More times than not, that treatment comes from your dentist.

At Manteca Dental Care in Manteca, California, Dr. Rick Van Tran and our team diagnose and treat sleep apnea in our patients. Because not all patients know what role their dentist plays in treating this condition, we’ve put together this guide to help you understand your options.

Types of sleep apnea

There are two types of sleep apnea.

1. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)

Obstructive sleep apnea is overwhelmingly the more common type and affects about 10-30% of adults in the United States. When you fall asleep, the muscles in the back of your throat relax, as do your soft palate, the side walls of your throat, and your tongue. When they relax, they collapse into your airway, blocking it and preventing you from inhaling.

As the oxygen level in your blood drops, your brain produces a startle response that (sort of) wakes you up to clear your airway. The startle makes you snort, gasp, or make choking sounds, but it’s so brief you wake only long enough to clear your airway, and you’ll probably have no memory of it. You head back to sleep … until the next time it happens.

This altered breathing pattern can occur 5-30 times or more each hour, and it may go on throughout the entire night. It interferes with your ability to reach the deep, restful phases of sleep, so you wake up tired and parched in the morning.

Since you generally don’t remember these episodes, you learn about the symptoms most often from a bedmate.

2. Central sleep apnea (CSA)

CSA affects less than 1% of the population. It prevents your brain from transmitting contraction signals to your breathing muscles, so you stop breathing for a brief time. Some people feel short of breath when they awake, while others have trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep.

Signs you have sleep apnea

Two major signs of sleep apnea, snoring loudly and holding your breath, are generally reported by a bedmate or roommate. Other common signs are more persistent, and you can decipher them yourself, including:

Waking up with a dry mouth every morning
Morning headaches
Difficulty staying asleep
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Memory and concentration problems
Irritability

If you experience any of these signs, especially if someone else also reports that you snore and hold your breath, seek medical attention; not breathing for even a short time can be life-threatening.

Treating sleep apnea

Your dentist is often the provider of first-line treatments for sleep apnea. Some of the most common treatments include:

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine

The CPAP machine consists of a mask you wear over your nose and mouth while you sleep. It’s connected to a machine that sends a steady stream of air into your lungs, and the air pressure holds your airway open.

Oral appliances

Custom-made oral appliances hold your lower jaw forward while you sleep, which opens your airway and prevents obstruction.

Inspire®

This surgically implantable, upper airway stimulation device is FDA-approved and functions a lot like a pacemaker. The device monitors your breathing while you sleep. If it senses you’re not breathing, it stimulates specific nerves that cause your throat muscles to contract, opening your airway and allowing you to breathe normally and sleep deeply.

If you’re experiencing any signs of sleep apnea, it’s time to schedule an evaluation with Dr. Tran. Give us a call at 209-823-9218 or book an appointment online today.