Sleep Apnea Treatment Options

For those who have to regularly deal with a partner or spouse who has chronic snoring you may want to look into Sleep Apnea Treatment.  Currently over 10 million Americans are diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea; a condition which effects your breathing during sleep, often times resulting in very poor sleep combined with obnoxious snoring. 

Besides the snoring there are many harmful side effects that occur from the horrible quality of sleep one gets when suffering with sleep apnea.  Heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke and many other serious medical conditions are greatly increased when someone has severe sleep apnea that is left untreated over long periods of time.  Not to mention that absolute lack of productivity and level of energy exhibited by those suffering from this horrible condition. 

Thankfully there are various treatment options available to help sufferers of sleep apnea.  The three main types of treatment are: Oral Appliance Therapy, CPAP Therapy, and Oral Surgery.  These three options are all typically handled by different medical sleep practitioners.   

Oral appliance therapy is handled through dentists who are well versed in Dental Sleep Medicine.  You will have your dentist create for you a unique fitting oral mouthpiece that you wear during sleep; there are two main types of oral appliances, Tongue Retaining Appliances and Mandibular Repositioning Appliances.   The purpose of such devices is to open the airway and create the space necessary for proper breathing. 

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Therapy is the more traditional method of treating sleep apnea.  As the name implies through CPAP therapy you are forcing air into your airway to keep it open for proper breathing while asleep;  the lack of comfort from  wearing a facemask at night is what has given the great rise in Dental Sleep Medicine as an alternative to CPAP therapy.   However for the most severe cases CPAP therapy has always shown to have the highest success rate.  Sleep specialists, ENT’s, TMJ’s are typically the type of doctors who will treat sleep apnea through CPAP.

There is also the option of getting Oral Sleep Apnea Surgery.  Obviously oral surgery requires you to address your condition through a surgeon.  There are multiple types of oral surgery, typically patients will be getting a portion of the soft tissue in the back of the throat removed; thus clearing the way for the airway to be more open.  Surgery however can be expensive, painful, and come with no guarantee for success.