Snoring & Sleep Apnea

Getting a good night sleep can be a challenge…especially for patients who snore or suffer from sleep apnea syndrome. Statistics indicate that 90 million Americans snore (60 percent are over age 40). While not considered a serious condition in itself, snoring can indicate other, more pressing health problems. The constant snorer may be the victim of sleep apnea, a dangerous disorder in which you literally stop breathing in your sleep. Sleep apnea can strike anyone, at any age, even children. Amazingly, you might be one of the 28 million Americans who suffer from sleep apnea…and not even know it! Often its symptoms, such as morning headaches, dry mouth and excessive daytime sleepiness, are dismissed or undiagnosed; this can have serious, even life-threatening consequences. Left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to fatigue-related road accidents, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Diagnosis and Treatment: The Importance of Consulting a Sleep Dentist
Sleep apnea goes undiagnosed because most health-care professionals (and even most dentists) are not trained to assess or treat it. At Princeton Center for Dental Aesthetics, we are sleep dentists—dentists specially trained in sleep medicine, oral appliance therapy and sleep disordered breathing problems. As such, we play an important role in the team approach to treating sleep apnea.

If sleep apnea is suspected, we’ll refer you to a sleep specialist for a complete medical assessment and technologically advanced sleep study, called a polysomnogram. Once diagnosed, we conduct a special intra-oral exam to determine the location and cause of the obstruction. The comprehensive exam entails:

• intra-oral habit assessment
• evaluating periodontal health
• x-rays and diagnostic model
• TMJ and occlusal exam
• checking gag reflex
• tonsil exam
• orthopedic exam

Based on our findings, we then recommend the appropriate oral appliance for you. In addition to lifestyle changes, such as exercise and weight loss, oral appliance therapy is a highly effective treatment for snoring and sleep apnea, especially as an alternative to surgery or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which has a 75 percent rejection rate. Also, oral appliances are significantly less expensive, non-invasive, reversible and comfortably worn by most patients. They are usually covered by your health insurance.

Don’t sleep on sleep apnea! Statistics indicate that 25 percent of all snorers suffer from sleep apnea. If you suspect you or a family member might be one of them, please call our office today to schedule an exam!