Sleep Apnea Therapy – Portage, IN
Feel Great in the Morning Again
Do you always feel tired during the day despite how much you’ve slept? Have you recently experienced problems with your memory or been having issues staying focused? Have you almost fallen asleep behind the wheel? If so, then you may be struggling with sleep apnea, the second most common sleep disorder in the world. This condition affects more than 20 million Americans each night, but at Advanced Dental Concepts, Dr. Danny Hayes is able to offer a solution that can help patients sleep symptom-free and reclaim their quality of life. Below, you can learn more about sleep apnea and how our team can help you overcome it.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
When a person has sleep apnea, they frequently stop breathing for short periods of time throughout the night. For most, this occurs because the soft tissues in the mouth and throat have relaxed into and obstructed the airway. This can be brought on by a number of factors, including obesity, a deviated septum, medication, and even a narrow throat/large tongue.
This causes the body to become extremely stressed due to the drop in oxygen, so it partially wakes up in order to restore proper breathing. This can happen up to a hundred times an hour! As a result, a person doesn’t get the deep, restful sleep they need to stay awake during the day, and their blood pressure skyrockets as their heart desperately tries to move limited oxygen throughout the body. This heightened pressure can last for hours afterward, making a person much more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.
What Are the Symptoms of Sleep Apnea?
A person dealing with sleep apnea will likely experience:
- Loud, chronic snoring
- Waking up feeling short of breath or gasping for air
- Morning headaches and sore throats
- Observed instances of halted breathing during sleep
- Mood swings/depression
- Trouble staying asleep
- Problems remembering/focusing on things
- Weight gain/trouble losing weight
- Sexual dysfunction
How We Can Help with Sleep Apnea
In the past, there were only two effective treatments for sleep apnea: CPAP therapy and corrective surgery. For CPAP therapy, a patient literally wears a mask that is connected to an air pump that forces oxygen into the throat during the night in order to keep the airway unobstructed. As you can imagine, many patients find that sleeping with a loud, bulky machine is extremely uncomfortable! And, most people would rather avoid invasive surgery as well.
Fortunately, we’re able to offer a proven alternative: oral appliance therapy. For this treatment, all a patient has to do is wear a small, custom-made mouthpiece to bed. It will be designed to fit comfortably over the teeth and slightly shift the lower jaw forward to help the airway stay open. The device can also be designed to keep the tongue in a neutral position as well.
This approach is convenient, quiet, and it has been shown to dramatically improve the sleep quality of 90% of the patients who use it consistently.
Reclaim Your Sleep
If you believe that you may be struggling with sleep apnea, or if you already have a diagnosis, please don’t hesitate to contact Advanced Dental Concepts today. With one easy appointment, we can put you on the road to enjoy a full night’s rest again.