Snoring and Sleep Apnea

Is Snoring affecting your Marriage??

67% of all adults snore.  And believe it or not, just as many post-menopausal women snore as do men of the same age.  This may come as a surprise to many of our wives!?!

Snoring is caused when the airway in the back of the throat becomes constricted and the soft tissue on the back of your palate vibrates and makes that annoying but all too familiar noise.

The cure to snoring is to open up the airway to keep it from collapsing.  However the problem is not quite so simple.  Simple Snoring can in many ways be considered just an annoying bad habit, however many people who snore also have a much more serious condition called “Obstructive Sleep Apnea” (OSA).  This is where the back of the throat gets so pinched off that less than 20% of the normal air flow is able to squeeze by.  Over time. this can be life threatening since it puts an incredible strain on the heart and the lungs to try to compensate for this lack of air flow. People who have OSA have 5 times the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

This is NOT something that a dentist can diagnose.  Only a physician with the use of a “sleep study” (ie. Polysomnogram) can diagnose whether you suffer from OSA.

The best treatment for OSA is the nightly use of a CPAP unit (Continuous Positive Airflow Pressure).  This has a success rate if you use it of over 90%, but due to non-compliance its actual overall success rate drops to 68%.  A CPAP pumps air thru tubes under slight pressure that you can control to make sure that your lungs have a continual supply of air to breathe.

Any treatment for OSA other than the regular use of CPAP is a compromise, and for a potentially life threatening condition like OSA, I would not recommend any compromises.

But if your physician has determined that you only have simple snoring with no sign of OSA, then there are some measures available to us.

The first, most simple method is to try to keep you from sleeping on your back.  You can try to attach a tennis ball to the back of your pajamas that makes it uncomfortable for you to lay flat on your back.  If you would like something more sophisticated than this, you can buy a “postural positioning cushion”.  For some information on one model that is available for about $100 by clicking here, or if you sew you can make your own. This usually has about a 60% success rate in at least improving the intensity of your snoring.

If this doesn’t satisfy you, the next step to try would be to have a dentist make a “mandibular advancement device” (MAD).  This moves your lower jaw and your tongue forward to try to expand the airway in the back of your throat.  There are some fairly serious disadvantages to this method that you should discuss with your dentist before attempting this mode of treatment.  You and your dentist need to decide whether the advantages of this treatment outweigh the disadvantages of this treatment.

For additional information on Snoring and OSA, please try these websites:

Here are some of the Signs, Symptoms, and Markers for people who “MAY” suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA):

  • You are overweight
  • You suffer from either diabetes or asthma
  • Restless sleep
  • Excessive daytime sleepiness
  • Snoring with intermittent pauses
  • A man’s neck size larger than 17 inches, or a women larger than 15 inches (it does not matter whether your large neck is due to fat or muscle

Dentist - Chicago
25 E. Washington Street
Suite 1917
Chicago, IL 60602
(312) 726-3135
(312) 726-3655 fax
Email : StrobelDentistry@live.com

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