Deep restful sleep is a critical component of a healthy life. If you snore, have difficulty falling asleep, or are always tired, we recommend you seek help. The first step is a visit to your medical doctor. If, after a sleep study, OSA is your diagnosis, take heart in the fact that effective sleep apnea and snoring treatment is possible and can help you get the sleep you need. Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by pauses in breathing while you sleep. Sana Dental can help with your sleep apnea, with effective sleep apnea treatment.
Your Alberta Choice for Sleep Apnea Treatment!
What Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a serious and potentially dangerous chronic breathing related sleep disorder that can cause chronic fatigue during the day. It is also associated with a number of other problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Essentially, sleep apnea causes your breathing to stop momentarily while you sleep. During these episodes of interrupted breathing, your blood oxygen level drops, which causes your brain to awaken and resume breathing.
Although you most likely are not conscious of these episodes, and you may not remember them in the morning, they can disrupt your sleep. Sleep apnea is often classified by its severity, which is based on how often your apneas occur and how low your blood oxygen level goes. Being awakened continually throughout the night can make it very difficult for you to reach and remain in the deeper stages of sleep that are important to physical and mental rejuvenation
Types of Sleep Apnea
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the more common of the two types, and occurs when your upper airway becomes partially or completely blocked while you sleep. When this occurs, your chest and diaphragm muscles must work harder to open up the blocked airway and draw air in. With OSA, a person makes a distinct effort to breath, but the airway in the back of the throat is blocked by an obstruction causing momentary stops in breathing.
- Central Sleep Apnea: Less common than obstructive sleep apnea, and more serious, central sleep apnea (CSA) occurs when your brain temporarily stops sending the proper signal to the muscles that control your breathing. When this occurs, a lack of respiratory movement occurs. During sleep, your breathing is regularly interrupted because of how your brain functions. With OSA, you are unable to breathe because of an obstruction. With CSA, your brain does not tell your muscle to breathe, and therefore you do not try to breathe. CSA is often associated with severe illness and tied to an underlying health condition. If left untreated, CSA can affect overall health
TREATMENT Options for Sleep Apnea
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the traditional and most commonly recommended method used to treat sleep apnea. Using a hose connected to a mask or nosepiece, it works by delivering a continuous stream of air into your lungs to keep your throat open while you sleep. It is a safe treatment, with a high success rate, although many patients find it difficult to tolerate because it can be uncomfortable to wear, bulky, noisy, and cumbersome to travel with. If you have sleep apnea and find that you are having a hard time sticking with your CPAP equipment, we recommend you talk to your doctor. In some cases, other treatments can be effective for controlling sleep apnea.
Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP)
BiPAP is best for OSA patients. Similar to CPAP in its design and function, it is intended to keep the airway from collapsing during sleep and allow for proper breathing. The biggest difference between CPAP and BiPAP machines is that while CPAP generally delivers a single pressure, the BiPAP machine has two pressure settings; a lower pressure for exhalation, and one pressure for inhalation.
Epigenetic Orthodontics
Sana Dental is pleased to provide Epigenetic orthodontics as a treatment option for sleep apnea. Epigenetic orthodontics provides an alternative to the CPAP machine if the cause of an individual’s sleep apnea is a bad bite. It allows us to grow the lower and upper jaws to their genetic ideals. Jaws, teeth, and facial bones do not have a predetermined growth pattern. Instead, they are driven by the influence and stimulation of functional patterns occurring in your mouth like breathing, chewing, and swallowing. If corruption occurs to these functional patterns, the jaw and facial growth can lead to problems like crowded teeth, underdeveloped jaws, and malocclusions. As a result, patients may experience breathing problems and sleep apnea. The goal of epigenetic orthodontics is to put your jaw and facial growth back on its original blueprint to give you a perfectly functioning mouth.
With epigenetic orthodontics, the DNA (day and night time appliance)/ VIVOS oral appliance is worn for 12-16 hours a day to reproduce the ideal 3 dimensional growth patterns that were disturbed during development. By correcting your jaw development, this can open up your airway which can eliminate sleep breathing problems like sleep apnea.
Mandibular Advancement Devices (MADs)
Sana Dental is pleased to offer MAD appliances to help treat your sleep apnea. A mandibular advancement device (MAD) is an alternative to the CPAP machine for mild to moderate cases of obstructive sleep apnea. It is a plastic oral device that is worn over your upper and lower teeth, with a hinge in the middle. It works by advancing the lower jaw forward during sleep, which in turn advances the tongue as well. The forward advancement expands the airway, reduces throat constriction, and prevents the tongue from collapsing over the airway (causing obstruction), helping you breathe better. By correcting your jaw position, MADs ultimately help prevent the tongue and soft tissues in the back of the throat from collapsing, so that the airway stays open during sleep.
