Sleep Apnea & Snoring Appliances

Ongoing snoring and sleeping issues can take a big toll on your overall health and wellness, impacting your daily life and those around you. If you or a loved one has sleep apnea or snoring problems, an oral appliance may be able to help.

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts, causing a lack of oxygen in the body. Symptoms of sleep apnea include snoring, insomnia, excessive day time sleepiness, irritability, weight gain, dry mouth, etc. There are many risk factors to sleep apnea. It is more commonly found in males. Other risk factors include obesity, larger neck circumference, large tongue, family history, clenching and grinding of teeth, smoking, and drinking. Unfortunately, sleep apnea is extremely common, affecting nearly 18 million Americans alone. Additionally, most cases of sleep apnea either go undiagnosed or untreated. Even diagnoses cases of sleep apnea are difficult to treat with conventional methods, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. Most CPAP machines are large, loud, and extremely uncomfortable to use and sleep with. Thankfully, there is a wonderful alternative treatment! Dentists are now using oral sleep appliances to treat sleep apnea AND snoring.

Oral Sleep Appliances:

Oral sleep appliances are devices that look similar to a mouth guard or retainer. They effectively treat sleep apnea and snoring by opening the airway. This is done by pulling the lower jaw forward, expanding the airflow down the throat. In addition, they are very comfortable and portable, unlike a CPAP machine.

Am I a Good Candidate?

Oral sleep appliances are great option for:

• Patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea
• Patients with mild to severe snoring
• Patients with sleep apnea who cannot use, or would prefer to not use a CPAP machine
• Patients with sleep apnea and grind their teeth