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What is Sleep Apnea?
What Causes Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea can be due to many causes, which can be about the severity and type of the condition. Common causes:
• Excess weight in an individual may cause the throat muscles to contract and therefore cave in during sleep, causing OSA.
• In some individuals, the airways are small or swollen tonsils and a deviated septum that can restrict airflow during sleep.
• Older age: Well-toned muscles and elastic tissues prone in younger people eventually collapse once one reaches old age.
• Gender: Before menopause, men are more likely than women to have sleep apnea.
• Family history: There is a belief that sleep apnea can be hereditary; hence, a person’s predisposition to fall into the problem has a degree of genetic predisposition to the disease.
• Smoking: This will increase inflammation as well as fluid in the throat that will worsen OSA.
• Alcohol and sedatives: These substances relax the muscles in the throat and interfere with the brain signals to breathe, which therefore causes CSA or worsens OSA.
• Medical conditions: Some conditions of heart failure, stroke, brain injury, or other neuromuscular disorders may affect the control of breathing by the brain and eventually lead to CSA.
Symptoms of Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea can have numerous symptoms that affect a person’s quality of life and overall well-being. Some common symptoms of sleep apnea include:
Other signs are as follows:
• Continuous and loud snoring: Snoring is a sign of obstruction in the airway, and may predict OSA. However, everyone who snores does not have sleep apnea, and vice versa, not everybody has sleep apnea snores.
•Gasping or choking during sleep: Both OSA as well as CSA can present with breathing interruptions.
• Daytime drowsiness and sleepiness: Patients with sleep apnea tend to be rather weary and relatively sleep-solvent day in and day out due to inadequate quality night’s sleep. It can impede their mood, concentration, memory, and their effective capabilities at work or school.
• Morning headache: The patient sleeping with sleep apnea wakes up mostly with a headache due to low oxygen levels in the blood and high carbon dioxide levels in the brain.
• Dry mouth or sore throat: Some patients with sleep apnea sleep with mouths open leading to dryness or irritation in the mouth or the throat.
• Mood changes: Generally, sleep apnea leads to depression and anxiety, irritability, or mood swings because one does not get quality sleep at all and feels fatigued chronically.
• Hypertension: This is because high oxygen stress on the heart and blood vessels while asleep and frequent arousal stimulates blood pressure.
• Heart disease: The increases in blood pressure that sleep apnea can cause can predispose people to heart attack, stroke, arrhythmia, or heart failure.
An Alternative if CPAP Isn’t Your Thing.
While CPAP therapy is recognized as the gold standard for controlling obstructive sleep apnea, it’s not always feasible or desired by every patient. This is where custom-fitted oral appliances come in as a viable alternative treatment approach for mild-moderate cases.
Dentists skilled in dental sleep medicine use impressions of your teeth to craft a precise-fitting device, much like a customized sports mouthguard. Worn during sleep, it holds the lower jaw slightly forward to keep the airway propped open. This prevents the tongue and soft tissues from obstructing normal breathing patterns.
Early research has found these removable appliances effectively reduce apnea events and daytime sleepiness comparable to CPAP therapy in motivated patients. More recent studies continue supporting oral appliances as an option able to significantly enhance the quality of life for those who either cannot acclimate to or simply prefer avoiding the nightly use of pressurized airflow.
While CPAP remains the first-line defense in clinical guidelines, personalized oral appliances manufactured by an experienced dentist offer a viable alternative for managing mild sleep apnea or serving as a backup plan. A thorough consultation can determine if this more comfortable option may work well alongside lifestyle modifications and management of underlying risk factors in your individual case. Compliance and follow-up remain key to long-term success with either approach.