A visit to the dentist sometimes comes with a few friendly warnings, like try not to eat so much sugar or be a little more diligent about flossing your teeth. However, you might not expect to hear warnings about your snoring habit while at your dentist’s office. The truth is, your dentist may be your best bet at finding a solution to stop snoring, especially if your snoring is just a symptom of a larger issue, like obstructive sleep apnea.
About Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Snoring can be caused by many different things, but for many patients, the reason is a partial airway blockage caused by mouth and throat tissues. As the tissues collapse into your airway, they shrink the area through which your breath passes. The smaller area means greater air pressure, and your breathing will begin to cause the walls of your throat to vibrate violently and noisily.
- The noise of snoring can be annoying and cause your sleeping partner to lose sleep, but it can also affect your life and wellbeing. Chronic snoring forces you to work harder for less oxygen while you sleep, and over time, this can increase your risk of conditions like cardiovascular disease.
- In a more immediate sense, snoring can be even more disruptive to your quality of life if it indicates obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Sleep apnea means that your airway becomes completely obstructed by oral tissues, causing you to stop breathing altogether while you sleep. The episodes can last for several seconds, causing your body to panic and wake up enough to start breathing again. As your body settles back down, snoring and sleep apnea can repeat itself, depriving you of the chance to enter into deep, REM stages of sleep.
