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How Dentists Can Help You Get the Sleep You Need
This entry was posted on July 21, 2014
.When it comes to solving your sleep problems, there are probably a number of resources that are on your mental checklist. These might include a visit to the pharmacy for an over-the-counter sleep aid, the App Store on your cell phone looking for a good sleep-whispering program or an electronics store for a sleep monitoring device, a mattress store for a new bed, or your doctor. Many people have found tremendous success seeking treatment from psychologists and psychiatrists who offer cognitive behavioral therapies, and some may need help from sleep laboratories, where they submit to overnight tests in which professionals monitor their activity, respiration, brain waves and more. Yet few seek help from the medical profession that is often likely to offer a quick and easy solution to their problem – their dentist.
In far too many cases, sleep deprivation and other sleep disorders are directly related to issues involving the palate and the jaw, and more and more dentists are beginning to specialize in dental sleep medicine. They are undergoing special training and working collaboratively with neurologists and sleep scientists to find new and innovative ways to provide patients with the restorative sleep that they need. Curing obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most clear-cut areas where dentists can be of assistance but it is not the only one.

Obstructive sleep apnea impacts millions of Americans. Being diagnosed with the condition often comes as a surprise to sufferers, who find it hard to believe that they are being awakened hundreds of times a night by their body gasping for oxygen. The condition is a result of relaxation of the soft tissues in the throat, closing off the airway and causing the brain to send a panic signal that awakens the body in order to restart breathing. In many cases the sufferer is completely unaware of their disorder, and it is often the spouse or sleep partner who reports the problem after witnessing the phenomenon in the middle of the night. The most frequently prescribed treatment for obstructive sleep apnea is the CPAP, or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine. This equipment consists of a mask that is attached to an engine that pumps a continuous stream of air into the patient’s airway. It is extremely effective, but getting people to use it consistently has proven to be difficult, as people find it uncomfortable and cumbersome, inconvenient for travel, and many find that the machine is too loud to allow them to fall asleep. In response, dental sleep medicine has created an oral appliance for obstructive sleep apnea patients.
The oral appliance looks very much like the mouth guards that professional football players are seen wearing during their games, and which protect their teeth from collision injuries. The sleep apnea mouth guard is worn while the patient is sleeping, and forces the jaw into a slightly different position so that it keeps the airway open and oxygen flowing. It is made of hard plastic and generally has a lifespan of five or six years. Even more important, it is quiet, portable, makes no noise and requires nothing that will prevent the patient from rolling over, traveling, or being attached to a bulky, unwieldy piece of equipment. All of these facts means that people are more apt to actually use it consistently, which means that even if it isn’t exactly as effective as CPAP while in use, it is more effective because it is used more consistently.
Finding a solution that a patient to obstructive sleep apnea that a patient is willing to use is often the hardest part of the battle. Unfortunately, many patients do not fully recognize or want to admit that their condition is life threatening and therefore they are often not willing to adhere to the use of anything that causes them too much discomfort. This is why the oral appliance is such a good alternative to the CPAP machine. Insurance companies are particularly open to the use of these appliances, and many list them as their preferred first line of treatment. As a result, dentists who offer the devices are seeing more and more patients being referred to them for these devices. According to Dr. James Metz, a pioneer in the area of dental sleep medicine, there are over 100 different oral appliance designs available for patients who have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, and finding the right one to suit each individual patient is important.
“We want the thinnest device available, which is especially important for women,” Metz said. “Women have the highest failure rate with the oral appliance because the inside of their mouth is smaller. If the appliance is thinner, you don’t have tom ove the jaw forward as far.”
There are minor dental concerns regarding the use of the oral appliances, most notably the fact that they can have an impact on a patient’s orthodontia, but for most people this is of minimal concern, particularly because once they start to experience improved sleep, they recognize the value of the appliance, as well as the extent to which the condition had been effecting the quality of their lives. Not only has the device helped patients sleep better, it has even helped some athletes perform better, as the repositioning of the jaw has helped them to breathe more efficiently. As a result, dentists are now creating a daytime version of the device specifically for athletes. According to Dr. Metz, “We know the device improves performance because it increases blood oxygen levels. These athletes know their bodies so well, we’re getting great data back from them. Whichever one improves performance the most, that’s the one they use.”
There is no doubt that improving sleep improves overall health, and if enabling people to get the sleep that they need by creating these oral devices assists patients to get restorative sleep, then it is just another way that dentistry can improve the quality of their patients’ lives.