Sleep Apnea & Snoring

Sleep Apnea & Snoring Treatment with Oral Appliance Theraphy

Oral Appliance Therapy is the ideal treatment for snoring patients and sleep apnea patient that is CPAP intolerant or do not use the CPAP, especially when traveling.

Snoring and the disturbance it causes used to be (and frequently is still) regarded as a joke, about which little could be done. We now know that snoring may be a pointer to abnormalities with breathing at night which may be harmful to the health of the snorer.

During sleep, all the muscles of the body relax and become more floppy. With the relaxation of the muscles which help hold open the throat, a partial collapse and narrowing results. Even in non-snorers this narrowing increases the resistance to the flow of air when breathing in but is usually of no significance. When the narrowing during sleep is greater than normal, the airway behind the tongue may collapse transiently. This gives rise to a fluttering of the throat tissues producing sounds which we recognize as snoring. Should the collapse be complete and longer-lasting, no air can be drawn into the lungs and the sufferer is literally without breath - that is experiencing apnea. Were this situation to persist, the individual would asphyxiate!

So our snorer, rouses briefly, avoiding suffocation, takes a few deep breaths and rapidly returns to sleep. This pattern may be repeated 300 - 500 times during the night without recollection in the morning! It is the fragmentation of the normal sleep architecture consequent upon these arousals which is the cause of the daytime symptoms of tiredness and drowsiness with diminished alertness and performance.