Most people take a good night’s sleep for granted or they accept the fact that they don’t feel rested when they get up in the morning.
Do you frequently wish you could take a nap in the afternoon?
Daytime sleepiness is a clear sign of a poor night’s sleep. If this is a frequent occurrence for you or a member of your family (especially children), there is good chance that you/they have a Sleep Disorder Breathing (SDB) condition.
At The Aventura Dentists, Dr. Rosenstein and his dedicated staff of dental healthcare professionals can provide a solution for this condition, thus providing you with the restful sleep you need and allowing you to wake refreshed for the day.
Many people snore occasionally, but chronic snoring is a more serious condition. Snoring may seem like it is only a problem for the sleeping partner, but that is far from the truth. Chronic snoring is frequently a sign of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This can be a life-threatening condition that is often overlooked. Other signs of OSA are daytime exhaustion, morning headaches, persistent sore throat, and dry mouth. Children my have ADHD, irritability, difficulty concentrating at school as well as other symptoms.
Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing for 10 or more seconds multiple times during the night. This reduces the oxygen available to the brain and heart. I am sure you can recognize this as serious health risk.
Mouth breathing resulting from inadequate nasal airflow, tongue tie, obesity, and narrow underdeveloped jaws can lead to OSA.
Much research has been done to show that underdeveloped jaws can lead to OSA which can result in a plethora of side effects for both children and adults.
Here are some of the symptoms that can we warning signs of OSA:
Dr. Rosenstein is a Vivos Integrated Provider and has the training and support to help solve your SDB issues. If you have any concerns about yourself or family and friends, call the office for an evaluation appointment.
Here are two great books to help you learn about breathing and why good sleep is so important and a video to help explain how and why jaw development can be a major factor in OSA.
Since both sleep apnea and chronic snoring involve the relaxation of the muscles of the throat, mouth and jaws, who is better trained to help you than an airway centered dentist. If you already have been diagnosed by a Sleep physician through a PSG sleep study and are using a CPAP (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) device, our treatment protocols may reduce or eliminate the need for you to use the CPAP machine. Our treatment appliances are usually one of these types.
Dr. Rosenstein is trained to utilize expansive orthopedics thru the Vivos Institute. With this technique, we can recapture space that was lost due to extractions from orthodontics or incomplete jaw development, grow the dental arches to accommodate the tongue, improve nasal breathing, and provide potentially permanent reductions in someone’s apnea hypopnea index (AHI).
If your partner has been complaining about your snoring for a while, they will sleep soundly when you get a mandibular advancement device (MAD). As mentioned above, snoring and sleep apnea are all about airflow and how some muscles are too relaxed and begin to interrupt that airflow.
To remedy this, MADs are worn like a mouthguard and use a unique design to place the tongue and jawbone forward, allowing air to flow more freely.
When you think of Orthodontics, most people imagine metal brackets and wires to move teeth into a more aesthetically pleasing position as well as helping the teeth fit together better. Breathing and airway management is rarely considered.
Airway orthodontics looks beyond the teeth and aims to create jaws that not only provide room for all your teeth to fit but also to improve airflow through the nose and reduce or eliminate mouth breathing. Training your muscles to function correctly is frequently a part of this treatment. As your jaws are expanded to make room for your tongue, it needs to be retrained to correct the swallowing pattern and help your facial muscles to function as they were intended. This muscle training is an important aspect for retention of the tooth and jaw changes.
Dr. Rosenstein’s emphasis on airway management is a guiding principle in all our orthodontic therapies. We use clear aligners for this treatment because they have some significant advantages over fixed braces when expanding the jaws.
While the majority of commercial products for sleep apnea target adults, over 100,000 children in the United States suffer from sleep apnea and, in many cases, it is caused by their developing teeth and jaw restricting proper airflow.
Many parents and adults would see the irregularities of the children’s teeth as a need for standard orthodontics and not even recognize the signs of sleep apnea.
Signs of sleep apnea in children are often termed behavioral issues, so if you take your child to a family doctor, they might not get the proper diagnosis. In order for you to know what to look out for, here are some of the symptoms of sleep apnea in children:
Though they are slightly different, treatment for children and adults is very similar. An accurate diagnosis is the first step. If you or a family member has a concern about a breathing/sleeping issue, why don’t you call our office to set up an examination and consultation.
