Sleep Apnea Treatment Parsippany
Helping You Rest Easy & Improve Your Health
At Rauchberg Dental Group, we are happy to offer a wide range of treatments to improve our patients’ oral and overall health. While we pride ourselves on creating personalized dentistry plans that keep patients smiling, we also offer a range of other services you may not immediately think about visiting the dentist for. One of those services is sleep apnea treatment from our Parsippany dentist. We work with local sleep doctors to provide effective therapy for sleep apnea sufferers to help them sleep soundly and wake feeling rested. If you’d like to find out more or schedule a sleep apnea consultation, contact our dental office today.
Why Choose Rauchberg Dental Group for Sleep Apnea Treatment?
- Advanced Diagnostic Imaging & Digital Impressions
- Skilled Multi-Specialty Team of Dentists
- Winner of the Best Dentist in Morris County Award
What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea occurs when patients stop breathing for ten or more seconds at a time during sleep. While everyone experiences incidents of apnea (complete breathing cessation) or hypopnea (shallow breathing) during sleep, patients diagnosed with sleep apnea can experience these events 100s of times a night.
Symptoms of Sleep Apnea
The only way to know for sure that you have sleep apnea is to receive an accurate diagnosis by taking a sleep test with a sleep doctor. If you’re trying to determine whether or not you may be suffering from sleep apnea, you can start by taking our short sleep quiz. Patients are at a higher risk if they are male, overweight, over the age of 50, or have a large neck circumference. You should let a sleep doctor or our team know if you experience any of the following warning signs, especially if you’re a high risk patient:
- Loud, chronic snoring
- Waking feeling tired and severe daytime sleepiness
- Waking out of breath, with dry mouth, or a hoarse throat
- Difficulty concentrating and memory loss
- Unexplained changes in behavior or mood swings
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Chronic morning headaches
Why Should You Visit a Dentist for Sleep Apnea Treatment?
Both the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend that patients visit the dentist for sleep apnea treatment if they fit any of the following descriptions:
- You’ve recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea and want to learn more about treatment
- Your sleep test did not return a sleep apnea diagnosis, but you suffer from loud, chronic snoring
- You have struggled to grow accustomed to CPAP treatments, but are deemed CPAP intolerant
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You do not achieve adequate improvement from CPAP therapy alone
Oral Appliance Treatment
When giving CPR or mouth to mouth, you’re instructed to shift the patients’ head back and jaw forward. This positioning places pressure on the throat muscles and opens the airway. Oral appliances for sleep apnea rely on this same positioning to keep the airway clear. Rather than moving the head back, the oral appliance shifts the jaw gently forward clearing the airway and allowing patients to sleep soundly through the night. A custom crafted appliance is comfortable and should allow you to sleep deeply for longer, stop snoring, and avoid the potentially adverse health effects of sleep apnea.
How Do Oral Appliances Work?
The most common form of apnea is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It refers to a partial blockage of the throat that makes it difficult for oxygen to flow properly during the sleep cycle. This can be exacerbated by increased neck girth or the tongue falling to the back of the mouth while you slumber. One of the common warning signs of sleep apnea is loud snoring, as the air causes vibrations as it struggles to bypass the collapsed tissue.
The oral appliance works to counter this by gently shifting the jaw forward to keep the airway open. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about feeling lethargic from being awakened several times throughout the night from bouts of apnea.
Why is an Oral Appliance a Better Option?
When it comes to treating sleep apnea, the most familiar method is with a CPAP machine. It consists of a mask, a tube that transports air, and a base unit. Its primary function is to force air into the throat throughout the night to prevent any lapses in breathing. However, many patients find it to be a loud and uncomfortable experience.
The solution is to visit us at Rauchberg Dental Group to receive a custom oral appliance. You’ll be able to get the rest you desperately need without the hassle of being attached to a cumbersome machine.
The Right Candidates for Oral Appliances
An oral appliance is designed to help patients who fit one or more of the following criteria:
- Loud snorers
- CPAP intolerant
- Receiving ineffective results from CPAP
- Diagnosed with mild to moderate sleep OSA
- Suffering from bruxism in addition to sleep apnea
- Have received corrective surgery but still suffering from sleep apnea
How Does the Process Work?
The first step to getting relief from your bouts of apnea is to have an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, you’ll need to undergo a sleep test with a sleep doctor. You can also take our sleep quiz. If you have the indicators of sleep apnea, such as loud snoring, daytime fatigue, difficulty concentrating, mood swings or morning headaches, we can help you.
Once it’s been verified that you have sleep apnea, we’ll start the fabrication process by capturing bite impressions of your teeth, and they’ll be sent to an in-network lab. Once the appliance is ready, we’ll invite you back to our dental office to retrieve it, along with some final instructions.
By taking the oral appliance route, you now have a way to get the critical rest you’ve been needing without sacrificing comfort. To get the process started, reach out to us to request an appointment!
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