Many people think that sleep apnea and snoring are one in the same, but while sleep apnea and snoring are connected, snoring is an indication of what’s going on inside your mouth while you sleep and could be the harbinger of far more serious conditions to come. With obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the soft tissues of your tongue, soft palate, and neck collapse onto your windpipe as you sleep. This blocks your airway, causing you to repeatedly stop breathing. In the short term, you may experience daytime sleepiness due to the lack of restful sleep, sometimes to the point of interfering with your professional and personal activities. The fact is, sleep apnea can lead to a number of systemic health issues, some of them potentially life-threatening if left untreated. As a practice dedicated to treating you, the patient, as a whole person, we at Lakeview Comprehensive Dentistry are focused on addressing the connections between your oral health and your overall health; it’s our mission to preserve both. See for yourself with a visit to our Tavares, FL office.
If you receive a sleep apnea diagnosis, we can provide a treatment option that you can easily use at home to alleviate your systems and help protect your health for the long term. More restful nights and more energetic days await you with a mouth guard, custom-fitted to you by the team here in our Tavares, FL office. These resemble mouth guards you might use in sports, but their purpose and function are very different. Mouth guards for sleep apnea slip over your top and bottom rows of teeth and hold your jaw slightly forward during sleep, preventing your windpipe from becoming blocked by the soft tissues of your mouth. Mouth guards are easy to use—we’ll show you exactly how—and have been shown to be very effective in preventing sleep apnea issues.
