Tooth grinding at night, also known as Bruxism, is a very common sleep problem that affects up to 75% of adults at some point in their lives.  Fortunately, dentists regularly notice the signs of tooth wear and will prescribe their patients a nighttime mouth guard to effectively cover and protect your teeth and keep your teeth healthy for life.

While nighttime mouth guards are effective in protecting your teeth, they do no treat sleep apnea or snoring.  In fact, mouth guards can actually amplify your sleep apnea. Recent studies have found tooth grinding rarely occurs by itself. In fact, sleep apnea was found to have the greatest association with those who grind their teeth at night.[1]

How do you know if you have sleep apnea?  If you suffer from any of the following symptoms, you may have untreated sleep apnea.

• Waking up after a full nights sleep unrefreshed, feeling tired
• Dry mouth, sore throat and/or gastric reflux
• Morning or evening headaches
• Loud snoring
• Waking up at night to urinate
• Sweating while sleeping
• Weight Gain
• Short term memory problems
• High blood pressure
• Mood swings and relationship problems

Treating sleep apnea will make a tremendous improvement in the quality of your life.  There are several options available to people that grind their teeth and have sleep apnea. A CPAP or Oral Appliance Therapy are both effective treatment options. Consult with your physician to start treating your sleep apnea and make a difference in your life.

Feeling Tired?

Ask us about our Home Screening Night Test. 

Mary Ellen Hughes trying out the ARES at Home Sleep Screening Device, making sure the fit and feel will be comfortable for our patients.

 Determine how likely your snoring may be related to your overall health.

It is common for sleep apnea to go undiagnosed by physicians. Sleep apnea is difficult to detect during a routine office visit. Take a moment to answer the following questions

Snore – Do you snore?
Tired – Do you feel tired, fatigued or sleepy during the daytime?
Observed – Has your bed partner observed you stop breathing during your sleep?
Pressure – Do you have or are you being treated for high blood pressure?

Did you answer yes to any questions? Discuss the possibility of sleep apnea with your physician and let him/her know your concerns.

During snoring muscles relax in the back of the throat narrowing the airway to a smaller opening.  As you breathe in your sleep, air is forced through this smaller opening causing vibrations known as snoring.

Although snoring may be harmless (benign snoring), it can also be a sign of a more serious medical condition which progresses from Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) to Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).

OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA (OSA): During an apnea event

• The muscles in the throat relax and the tongue is sucked against the throat blocking the airway.
• The entire upper airway is blocked causing air flow to stop.
• Air (and oxygen) cannot flow into the lungs.
• When the oxygen level in the brain becomes low enough, the sleeper partially awakens, the obstruction in the throat clears, and the flow of air starts again – usually with a loud gasp or snort.
• People with untreated apnea are generally not aware of the awakenings but only of being sleepy during the day.
• Loud snoring, mixed with periods of silence (apnea), is typical but is not always present, especially in children.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a life threatening and life altering condition that causes a person to stop breathing repeatedly during sleep. The oxygen deprivation that results can trigger severe health problems. The restless sleep that also results from OSA affects the quality of life of individuals. The bed partner’s sleep can also be disrupted by his or her partner’s snoring, pauses in breathing and restless sleep.

Visit our website to learn more about the Health Consequences of untreated sleep apnea!

Archive for Monday, November 15, 2010

Monday Medical: Sleep apnea linked to diabetes

“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”— Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)

Sleep — it’s more important than you think. Healthy sleep has numerous benefits, while sleep disorders have been linked to everything from drowsy driving to diabetes.

Research has shown that as many as 80 percent of white males with Type 2 diabetes also have sleep apnea, which can be a serious disorder. Although Type 2 diabetes puts people at higher risk for heart disease and stroke, adding sleep apnea on top of it multiplies that risk even more.

We are just now discovering how crucial sleep is to our health and well-being. Accor­­ding to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, sleep helps us improve learning, memory and mood, while lack of sleep causes slower thinking, confusion and difficulty focusing.  CONTINUE

What do they have in common?

Biggest Loser Contestants are serious about losing weight.  If you are serious about losing weight or maintaining your current weight, you really need to do 3 things:

1. get the right amount of sleep
2. exercise
3. eat right

Sleep + Exercise + a Healthy Diet = Weight Loss

What has medical research found? Well, when you’re sleep deprived, your hormone levels that influence your eating behavior increase. At the same time  your leptin (which tells your brain to stop) levels decrease. This leads to an increased craving for food and not feeling full. Adding to the problem, sleep deprived people tend to chose different foods to snack on -mainly high calorie sweets and salty and starchy foods.

Did you know

• Approximately 65% of Americans are overweight or obese
• 63% of Americans report they do not get at least 8 hours of sleep per night

What can you do to stop this lack of sleep and overeating circle? The number one way is to get the sleep you need EACH night.  Most adults need 7 to 9 hours.  Set a sleep pattern for yourself and get yourself into a regular sleep routine.  Start with the minimum of 7 hours for a consecutive week.  If you awake unrested, add 30 minutes each night until you notice your alertness return and your appetite decrease.

What did the Biggest Loser Contestant do to help with weight loss?

You can read more here from the National Sleep Foundations Blog about Sherry and her  daughter Ashley’s sleep apnea diagnosis and CPAP use:  National Sleep Foundation Blog Article

Did Sherry and Ashley have any treatment options available to them in additon to CPAP Therapy?

Professional Oral Appliance Therapy is an option for treating mild to moderate sleep apnea.  Oral Appliance Therapy (OAT) – is a conservative treatment option using an oral appliance for patients to wear during sleep. These devices change the position of mouth structures to maintain an open, unobstructed airway in the throat. There are many types of oral appliances and selection as to which is to be constructed is based on many patient parameters. Proper design, construction, and follow-up care of these devices requires a trained dentist and in depth knowledge of jaw joints and sleep disorders. This type of treatment is “site specific” in that an OAT will have no effect on obstructions high in the upper airway or low in the airway. Patients usually prefer oral appliances to CPAP.