On average, teen’s age 10-17 should get 8.5-9 hours of sleep each night.  Elementary school kids should be getting on average 10-11 hours of sleep each night.  Please think about this when deciding on sports schedules or adding extra activities to your children’s schedules.

Some questions you may consider before saying yes to that next activity:

• Is your child getting enough sleep most nights?
• Do they have time to eat well balanced and nutritious meals, or are you eating on the run?
• Is the family sitting down to share their meals the majority of the week?
• Is there time allotted each night for the kids to focus on schoolwork?
• Is there downtime for the kids to have to themselves, to read, listen to music, etc.?

After reading this, you still have a choice. But if this is your decision, and one that works well for you and your family then, wonderful.  But for those looking to end the world of non-stop running and meals at fast food places, tired kids and perhaps falling grades, then maybe step back and take a look at what are we trying to develop for our kids.

Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois, a premiere snoring and apnea treatment center in Naperville has been providing the CPAP alternative treatment of oral appliance therapy for over 15 years successfully. For more information on this physician recommended treatment option, visit www.TiredOfSnoring.com or call us at (630) 369-5508.

People who snore often may have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea, a life-altering condition, in which a person unknowingly stops breathing during sleep, or has oxygen-dipping events throughout the night.

This lack of oxygen affects the body negatively in many ways.  In relation specifically to eyes, people with obstructive sleep apnea are at risk for:

• Floppy Eye Syndrome
• Normal tension glaucoma
• CPAP associated – eye strain
• Asthenopia (generalized eye discomfort)
• Papilledema (swelling of the optic nerve)
• NAION (decreased oxygen and blood flow to optic nerve)

These last 2 conditions can lead to vision loss.

Also, some of the most common symptoms of sleep apnea include:

• Fatigue
• Tiredness
• Eye strain
• Morning headaches

These common symptoms of snoring and apnea are often confused with eye problems.

If you are snoring or have a family history of snoring, consider treatment and evaluation for your particular situation. If you are experiencing the symptoms mentioned above and sleeping disorders have been ruled out, it may be time to get your eyes evaluated.

Dr. Sosenko’s husband, Dr. Chris Burch, is a local optometrist (eye doctor) who provides state-of the-art-eye care at Danada Vision Center located 10 minutes north of Sherman Oaks Dental at 115 Danada Square W, Wheaton, IL near the Subway at Butterfield and Naper Blvd. Their telephone number is (630)668-0378.

Dr. Lydia Sosenko of Dental Sleep & TMD Center of Illinois is a general dentist with specialized training in the state of the art treatment of snoring and apnea with oral appliance therapy.  She also works with local physicians who treat obstructive sleep apnea with other treatments such as CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure device).

For more information on the dangers of snoring and apnea, visit Dr. Sosenko website www.TiredOfSnoring.com.  It could save your relationship, and your life!

Sleep deprivation leads to:

• Weight gain
• Depression
• Decreased memory
• Poor Concentration
• Irritability
• Relationship trouble

What can you do to help yourself get the sleep you need? Set a sleep pattern for yourself and get into a regular sleep routine.  Start with the minimum of 7 hours each night for a consecutive week.  If you awake unrested, add 30 minutes each night until you notice your alertness return.

A few ideas to help you make Sleep changes at home:

1. Log the sleep hours of each family member, before and after you try to add sleep to your new year. (You’ll be surprised!)
2. Cut out all electronics 1 hour before bedtime.
3. Eliminate caffeinated drinks after dinnertime.

If you are getting a full night’s sleep and STILL wake unrefreshed and fatigued throughout the day, you may be suffering from a sleep disorder. Please, consult with your physician and let him know you are concerned. Make changes today to start off on the path to a full night of sleep, every night! For more information on how Dr. Sosenko can help you get the sleep you need.

Lydia Sosenko, D.D.S. Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine Founder of Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois.

Dr. Lydia Sosenko provides this week’s Smart Sleep Tip. If your child grinds their teeth, please watch this video.

Dr. Sosenko is a general dentist and Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. She offers state-of-the-art snoring and apnea patients relief through professional oral appliance therapy. She may be contacted at www.TiredofSnoring.com or call 630.369.5508.

One of the obstacles of moving forward with oral appliance therapy that we often hear from our newer patients includes cost and payments. So here are a few facts we put together.

• In most cases,  medical insurance reimburses a large portion of the service and device if the claim is properly handled.

• If insurance should not cover your situation, let’s do the math. If you consider the wide range of oral devices for snoring and apnea, let’s choose as a sample to use a longer lasting high quality custom device. A new custom type quality mouth device for snoring and apnea can last 3 years and usually much longer. (One of my patients who came in yesterday brought in his 10 year old oral appliance, and it is still in great shape!)  If you wore your oral device every night for 3 years, it would only cost you $2.47 a night.  If you compare that to a tall cup of Starbuck’s coffee which averages $3.00, that is 53 cents more a day to drink coffee than to wear a much needed, life saving device.

• Ask us if there is a temporary option using a lower quality and not as highly custom type device for you. For some patients,  this device can give some relief but we still recommend working with a dentist trained and willing to help you with this.  Side effects for these devices are often worse than  FDA approved adjustable custom devices.

Let us look at some of the possible outcomes with the lack of treatment in relation to obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. There are thousands of dollars of cost that often accompany these conditions.

• High Blood Pressure
• Stroke
• Heart Attack
• Morning Headaches that last all day.
• Sexual Dysfunction
• Mood Changes
• Relationship strains
• Higher traveling expenses (separate rooms)

Consider this: An oral appliance last years and profoundly change the quality of your life, especially if you have already attempted CPAP therapy. Make sleep a number one priority in your life! Peaceful, restful nights can add years to your life.

Dr. Sosenko is a general dentist and Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. She offers state-of-the-art snoring and apnea patients relief through professional oral appliance therapy. She may be contacted at www.TiredofSnoring.com or call 630.369.5508.

Our first morning resulted in loud birds squawking out our windows at 4:30am. This is not good when the entire family is now awake and not very happy…remember this is our vacation, and we would like to sleep in a little. Knowing that this is not just a fluke, I knew I have to find a remedy.

Preparing for what was to come the next morning. I started researching white noise apps on my iPhone that may help this situation. When you are out of the country, it is not always convenient to find a drug store to buy ear plugs.

I came across the app called White Noise Ambience. This app is great! You can choose beach sounds, rain, and lots more. For me? Well I chose the basic fan white noise setting. It did not completely eliminate the sounds, but it did help tremendously.

Whether you are worried about street noise, hotel elevators, and young children and adults running down hotel halls and talking loudly outside your door, you may want to try this app for white noise. Remember to plug your phone into your charger so that you won’t run the battery down.

Please share with us if you know of other similar apps that have helped you sleep better.

by Dr. Lydia Sosenko

Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois, a premiere snoring and apnea treatment center in Naperville has been providing the CPAP alternative treatment of oral appliance therapy for over 15 years successfully. For more information on this physician recommended treatment option, visit www.TiredOfSnoring.com or call us at (630) 369-5508.

If you or someone you know is frequently snoring or has the following symptoms you should consider getting a medical evaluation.  If a sleep disorder like obstructive sleep apnea is suspected, a sleep test may be requested. Here are some common reasons why a sleep test might be ordered:

• Snoring
• Gasping for breath, after a pause in breathing
• Waking with a dry mouth
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Drowsy driving
• Morning headaches
• Depression
• Overweight
• Gastric reflux
• Restless sleep
• Periodic leg jerks/movements
• Frequent trips to the bathroom at night
• Excessive night sweating
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Insomnia
• Sleep walking, talking or eating

A sleep study is the best way to analyze and diagnose your sleep. There are many types of sleep disorders in addition to sleep apnea. Sleep studies can also determine whether you have a problem with your stages of sleep also. Depending on what the testing shows, there are several treatment options.

Do not let the affects of sleeping disorders such as sleep apnea change your life!

Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois, a premiere snoring and apnea treatment center in Naperville has been providing the CPAP alternative treatment of oral appliance therapy for over 15 years successfully. We are extremely passionate in helping individuals that have been struggling with CPAP therapy in Naperville, Wheaton, Aurora, Bolingbrook and surrounding Chicago suburbs. For more information on this physician recommended treatment option, visit www.TiredOfSnoring.com or call us at (630)369-5508.

Hi this is Mary Ellen and I am going to review the tip of the week for dental sleep medicine.

This is a morning aligner, or a repositioner, or a retainer. It can be called different names by different providers of oral appliance therapy. Using these devices is one of the most important things I can talk to you about today that involves oral appliance therapy. For those patients who are wearing an oral appliance for snoring and apnea, use a custom  morning repositioner like this in the morning after you take out your appliance to help prevent potential side effects of your bite from changing.  Try to slowly adjust your bite into this device.  After it is inserted, keep it on your teeth anywhere from 5 minutes to 25 minutes or longer depending on what your teeth need. Take it out after five minutes and “test” your bite. If your bite does not feel ‘regular’ or where it needs to be, for normal chewing put it back into your mouth and adjust your bite to fit the pattern of the device again. Hold it there with moderate pressure until your teeth go back to their normal position that you are used to chewing.  After it is removed just briefly brush the morning aligner and place along with your oral appliance into the container box leaving the lid open and you are good to go. Our tip of the day, use a morning aligner to help prevent side effects from the use of oral appliance therapy for snoring and apnea.

Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois, a premiere snoring and apnea treatment center in Naperville has been providing the CPAP alternative treatment of oral appliance therapy for over 15 years successfully. For more information on this physician recommended treatment option, visit www.TiredOfSnoring.com or call us at (630)369-5508.

“I feel like myself again!” a patient happily blurted out at a recent visit to our practice. Was she talking about a recent smile makeover? Or possibly a re-energized feeling from a new exercise program? Maybe a new healthy eating plan has rejuvenated her? No, she was able to sleep well again, for the first time in over a decade!

Knowing she had snoring issues, Elaine was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder that caused pausing or dips in breathing throughout the night during sleep.  In many cases sleep apnea can cause restless sleep, poor quality of sleep and an entire list of other problems such as:

• Lack of energy
• Lock of focus
• Depression-like symptoms
• Weight gain
• High blood pressure
• Personality changes
• Increase the chance of stroke and heart attacks

Unfortunately, Elaine could not get accustomed to wearing an air pressure device (CPAP) that is often used to treat OSA patients.  Years of not treating her condition took a real toll on her emotional well-being. She never felt rested, and often even depressed.

Luckily her physician referred her to us, for the treatment of oral appliance therapy, a CPAP alternative. An oral appliance proved to be a success for her.  In as little as a week after wearing an oral appliance, she was able to sleep well for the first time in years. 

And soon afterwards, she notices how much better she felt throughout the day.

Whether it be snoring, obstructive sleep apnea a, or one of the many other sleeping disorders, lack of good quality of sleep can have devastating effect. If you are interested in regaining your ‘youthful’ self-back and sleep well again, discuss your symptoms with your physician. It may lead to a youthful, more energetic you!

Dr. Sosenko is a general dentist and Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine.  She offers state-of-the-art snoring and apnea patients relief through professional oral appliance therapy. She may be contacted at www.TiredofSnoring.com or call 630.369.5508.

Hi I’m Dr. Lydia Sosenko and today’s sleep tip involves the hereditary component of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

If you have been previously diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder that often is accompanied with snoring, it is important to know that this condition often runs in families. Although increased weight increases your chance of having obstructive sleep apnea, there’s a lot more involved than this and some people are very thin and have apnea.  There are hereditary attributes such as jaw structures, and other upper anatomy situations that makes one at higher risk for OSA. If you have been previously diagnosed and you are suffering from apnea, or even getting it treated, please talk to your adult kids, parents, or siblings. They are all at high risk for developing sleep apnea as well, and you might want to share that knowledge with them. Thank you and today’s sleep tip is to openly discuss with those close in your family that they are high risk for having obstructive sleep apnea.

Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois, a premiere snoring and apnea treatment center in Naperville has been providing the CPAP alternative treatment of oral appliance therapy for over 15 years successfully. Please call us if you have any questions 630.369.5508.