Sleep apnea cured by appliance from London dentist
Sleep apnea is a fairly serious sleeping disorder that is caused when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep. People who suffer from sleep apnea actually stop breathing repeatedly during sleep, as many as hundreds of times a night. Sleep apnea is often confused with snoring which is not the case. Snoring is a noise caused by breathing during sleep but sleep apnea is the actual cessation of breathing that causes choking noises. One of the truly amazing facts about sleep apnea is that over 90 per cent of sufferers have no idea they have the condition. Those that do know only do so because perhaps a partner has told them.
There are two main types of sleep apnea. The most common is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (or OSA) and is caused by a blockage of the airways by the collapsing soft tissue at the back of the throat during sleep. The other type of sleep apnea is Central Sleep Apnea which occurs, not like OSA when the airway is blocked, but when the brain does not send signals to the muscles to breathe because of a malfunction or instability in the respiratory control center.
Sleep apnea can affect anybody, of any age at any time but there are a number of high risk factors. Being male, overweight or over the age of forty all significantly increase the risk of suffering form sleep apnea. Large tonsils or simply a genetic dispositon to the disease are also key factors.
Sleep apnea can be the underlying cause of a number of physiological and psychological conditions. Hypertension and strokes have been attributed to sleep apnea and more worrying for sufferers is the terrifying prospect of heart failure or attack. Less serious but no less worrying is recent research that sleep apnea is often responsible for underperformance of children at school and in everyday activities.
Dentists play a very important role in the treatment of sleep apnea. Although each patient responds to treatment differently, dental appliances such as lower jaw adjusters and other oral devices have been very successful in treating all kinds of sleep apnea. If you suffer from sleep apnea (or think you might) consult a London dentist who will be able to offer advice on how best to treat the disease and see if an oral appliance can work for you.
