If you don’t sleep well, who are you most likely to go see first? Your general physician? If that’s what you answered, then you’re like a ton of other American adults.
What’s interesting, though, is that dentists can help you if you know you’re dealing with sleep apnea. Now, sleep apnea is fairly straightforward to diagnose, but it’s harder to treat. There are a lot of causes, and a lot of different solutions based on those causes. But dentists can help with treatment. Let’s take a look at how.
What is it?
Sleep apnea is a disorder in which your airway closes frequently throughout the night, causing you to run out of oxygen and stop breathing. A sudden jerk awake – which you almost never remember – helps you resume regular breathing. The problem is that this happens dozens of times per night.
That many moments of being jerked awake is obviously not good for your sleep. So what is there that can be done to help prevent or treat sleep apnea?
Treatment
Dr. Marla Wilson at Premier Dental Care in Indianapolis, Indiana has all the tools to help treat your sleep apnea. One of the most common treatments is a mouthguard, otherwise known as a dental appliance. This guard fits in your mouth and is designed to be worn at night. It might take a bit of getting used to, but not much. What it does is tilts your jaw at such an angle that your airway stays open throughout the night. This eliminates the need to wake up to breathe.
While it’s not a completely effective treatment, it helps numerous people. To see if it could help you with your sleep apnea problems, give us a call today at 317-787-6625. We can’t wait to help you start sleeping better!