How Do You Cure Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a common but potentially serious sleep disorder that causes your breathing to stop and repeatedly start during sleep. If your sleep partner has mentioned that you snore loudly regularly or you wake up often while gasping for air or choking, chances are that you have sleep apnea.

In many cases, people with sleep don’t know they have it. The breathing interruptions happen so quickly that you may not be awake enough to realize it. Besides preventing quality and restful sleep, untreated sleep apnea increases your risk of serious health complications like poor immune function, heart disease, dementia, and memory loss.

For these reasons, it’s essential to seek treatment if you think you or your family member have sleep apnea. Contact our sleep apnea dentist in Chestnut Hill, MA, if you have the following symptoms:

• Loud snoring
• Morning headaches
• Awakening with a dry mouth or sore throat
• Gasping for air during sleep
• Episodes of breath interruption during sleep (often reported by another person)
• Difficulty staying asleep (insomnia)
• Difficulty concentrating while awake
• Excess daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia)
• Irritability and depression
• Low libido

Treating sleep apnea

For mild cases of sleep apnea, your doctor or dentist can recommend conservative methods to improve your breathing during sleep. These can include:

• Lifestyle changes and home remedies

If lifestyle changes and therapies aren’t effective, surgery may be an option to correct sleep apnea. Surgical options include:

• Lose weight. Obese and overweight people have a lot of tissue around the throat, which can constrict your throat and cause sleep apnea during sleep. Losing weight can improve your airway and prevent sleep apnea.
• Exercise. Getting 30 minutes or more of moderate activity each day can help ease the symptoms of sleep and maintain a healthy weight.
• Avoid alcohol and certain medications. Taking alcohol before bed and certain drugs like sleeping pills and tranquilizers can relax your throat, interfering with your breathing.
• Sleep on your side. Sleeping on the back causes your soft palate and tongue to fall back during sleep and block your airway. Sleeping on your left side helps keep your airway open and prevent sleep apnea.
• Avoid tobacco. Research shows that smoking can worsen or cause sleep apnea.
• Therapies for sleep apnea

If these measures don’t improve your sleep apnea or you have severe sleep apnea, your dentist or doctor can recommend specific therapies, including:

• Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP): For moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, a CPAP machine can help. The machine continually delivers air pressure through a mask, keeping your airway open and preventing snoring and sleep apnea. Your symptoms will return when you stop using the machine.
• Other Airway Pressure Devices: If a CPAP machine isn’t an option, your dentist can recommend bi-level positive airway pressure (BPAP) and adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV).
• Oral appliances: Another common solution for obstructive sleep apnea is wearing an oral device like a night or snore guard and tongue-retaining devices. These devices keep your throat open to relieve and prevent sleep apnea. Unfortunately, they don’t cure sleep apnea. Your symptoms will return as soon as you stop wearing the devices.
• Medications: For central sleep apnea (breathing interruptions associated with medical conditions like neuromuscular and heart disorders), treating these conditions can help relieve your symptoms.
• Supplemental oxygen: Your doctor can recommend supplementary oxygen devices when sleeping to deliver oxygen to your lungs if you have central sleep apnea.
• Surgery
• Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (tissue removal) and tissue shrinkage: The surgeon removes or shrinks tissues in your throat to widen the airway and prevent snoring and sleep apnea. The surgery can also involve removing the tonsils and adenoids.
• Jaw repositioning or maxillomandibular advancement: The procedure involves moving the jaw forward to enlarge the space between the soft palate and tongue, making airway obstruction and sleep apnea less likely.
• Nerve stimulation: The surgery involves inserting a simulator for the hypoglossal nerve (the nerve that controls tongue movements). The stimulation helps keep the tongue in position and keep the airway open.
• Tracheostomy: The surgery involves creating a new passageway. It’s only recommended if you have severe or life-threatening sleep apnea and other failed treatments.
• Bariatric surgery: This is also known as weight loss surgery.

Are you interested in sleep apnea treatment in Chestnut Hill, MA?

For more information about sleep apnea and its treatments, contact Hammond Pond Dental Group to make your appointment today.