Sleep Apnea
What Exactly Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is not just snoring. It is a sleep disorder characterized by the repetitive interruption of your breathing during sleep. These sleep disruptions shift the brain into a less deep stage of sleep, making a full night's rest impossible and leading to a host of health issues.
Sleep Apnea Carries Many Risks
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Moodiness
- Depression
- Headaches
- Acid reflux
- Diabetes
- Stroke
- Heart failure
- Forgetfulness
- Concentration issues
- High blood pressure
Sleep Apnea Can Cause Oral Health Issues
Oral health symptoms associated with obstructive sleep apnea include:
- Dry mouth
- Enamel erosion
- Chipped teeth
- Enlarged tongue
- Sore throat
- Teeth grinding
Some of these symptoms overlap with TMJ disorder, a condition of the jaw joint and jaw muscles that causes pain and disfunction. Just as with sleep apnea, our dentists can treat TMJ disorders by crafting a customized oral appliance to move the jaw into proper position.
Dr. MacDonald Has Sleep Apnea Himself
Our Archdale, NC, team has many years of experience treating sleep apnea and attending countless medical seminars and trainings about obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. During one of these sleep medicine seminars in New York, Dr. Keith Macdonald brought home an at-home ARES sleep apnea test and tried it out on himself.
After taking the test, Dr. Mac actually found out that he had sleep apnea himself. Our team used our 3D cone beam scanner on his airway, revealing that his upper airway restricts to three millimeters or less during his sleep. Finding this out saved his life, and allowed our dentist to begin treating his sleep apnea.
This personal experience, and the need to treat his obstructive sleep apnea, gives our dentist a heightened passion for helping his patients overcome their own obstructive sleep apnea issues with customized oral appliances.
We Offer Oral Appliance Therapy To Treat Sleep Apnea's Many Risks
Our team's deep understanding of the severity of sleep apnea ensures that we follow all rules to keep our patients safe. If you obtain a prescription from your M.D. stating that you refuse to wear a CPAP machine, we can create an FDA-approved oral appliance that is among the best treatments for the sleep disorder.
Our oral appliances are used to treat mild to moderate sleep apnea. An oral appliance works by preventing the tongue from blocking the throat and closing the airway. We take digital scans of your mouth, then send these scans out to a trusted lab that will make a customized appliance to comfortably fit in your mouth and keep your upper airway open throughout each night.
Our Archdale, NC, patients often opt for oral appliances as they’re a quiet, convenient, portable, and effective solution to treating sleep apnea. This treatment is much more comfortable for patients, allowing them to sleep soundly through the night to help them regain their energy and avoid daytime sleepiness.
Request Our Help
Our Archdale, NC, practice is committed to helping patients resolve sleep apnea issues. We provide ARES™ at-home sleep apnea testing to evaluate your issues and personalize treatment. This take-home test is FDA-approved and is highly preferable to going to a hospital for a sleep study, which requires being attached to 700 electrodes overnight.
We’ll also provide a rhinometer and pharyngometer analysis to measure your nasal capacity and airway size. Once we receive your ARES data, we will have it evaluated by a medical sleep specialist who will determine if your sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea or another form. As long as your disorder is obstructive sleep apnea and not too acute, we will be able to move ahead with customizing an oral appliance that can change your everyday life – and nights.
Reach out now to start your personalized sleep study.
336-434-3186
The Cost of an Oral Appliance At Our Archdale, NC, Practice
Though the exact price will depend on your unique treatment needs, in general our oral appliances cost around $1,900. Patients consider avoiding daytime sleepiness, high blood pressure, and other sleep disorder issues well worth the price.
So What Is a CPAP Machine?
A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is the most common treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. The CPAP forces air from the room through a tube and into a mask that must be worn throughout the night. The continuous positive airway pressure created by the CPAP machine alleviates sleep apnea symptoms.
A continuous positive airway pressure machine is an absolute necessity for patients whose sleep apnea is very severe. However, patients with less extreme symptoms can often have their problems eased with the FDA-approved sleep medicine appliances our expert team crafts.
