How Is Sleep Apnea Treated?

What is Sleep Apnea?

sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that interferes with normal breathing patterns during sleep. Breathing may stop momentarily, for a few seconds to minutes, or get very shallow. This happens several times during your sleep and ends affecting the quality of sleep and rest you get. When breathing temporarily stops, the lack of oxygen may jolt you awake briefly. The disruption causes you to spend more time in light sleep, and less in deep sleep, which is why most patients tend to suffer from daytime tiredness, despite getting a full night’s sleep.

Who Can Be Affected?

Dentists near Spring make it clear that anyone can be affected by sleep apnea. The severity or cause of the condition will however depend on factors such as age and body weight. Older and overweight people tend to be mostly affected. Other contributing factors include structural abnormalities such as enlarged tonsils, nasal obstruction and an overbite within a small jaw. Depending on the trigger for your apnea, it may be categorised as either obstructive sleep apnea or central sleep apnea. The former occurs when there is a physical obstruction to the airways while the latter is due to a failure by the brain to signal the breathing muscles due to a problem with the respiratory control center.

Sleep Apnea Treatment in Spring, TX

Many patients with sleep apnea hardly recognise the symptoms, since they occur while they are asleep. Common symptoms include snoring, fatigue, restless sleep, headaches, cognitive impairment and frequent awakenings or insomnia for those with central sleep apnea. If you notice these symptoms and still do not get sleep apnea treatment near you, there is risk of developing more serious health conditions such as hypertension, heart failure, heart attack, stroke, cardiomyopathy and diabetes.

There are different types of treatments available for sleep apnea in 77379. Your doctor will recommend the best solution based on the finding during your diagnosis. It is always important to get an accurate diagnosis to ensure that the best approach is used in managing sleep apnea. There is no standard treatment used for all patients and instead an individual approach is mostly used for effective results.

Sleep apnea treatments include conservative treatments, mechanical therapy, surgery and use of mandibular advancement devices.

• Conservative Approach

This is used for mild cases of apnea and involves adjusting one’s lifestyle to eliminate the cause of the apnea. It may include losing weight, quitting alcohol and use of certain sleeping pills and paying attention to sleeping positions. If you have sinus problems, nasal sprays or breathing strips can help improve airflow for comfortable breathing throughout your sleep.

• Mechanical Therapy

In this case, machines are used to help with your nighttime breathing. Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) Therapy is often used for patients with obstructive sleep apnea. It helps prevent the upper airways from collapsing and causing an obstructing during sleep. Other devices that can be used include Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), Bi-Level PAP and Auto CPAP/Auto Bi-Level PAP.

• Mandibular Advancement Devices

These are appliances used in mild to moderate apnea cases. The oral mandibular devices or dental appliances help keep the airways open by preventing the tongue from blocking the throat. When worn they slightly move the lower jaw forward ensure the airways stay open during sleep. Only a sleep specialist or dentist can determine if this treatment is good for you.

• Surgery

Surgical sleep apnea treatment Near Spring, TX is mostly performed on patients with excess or abnormal tissues that interfere with airflow when breathing. Surgery is only used when all other interventions have failed or do not promise significant results. They types of surgery may include somnoplasty, tonsillectomy, mandibular advancement surgery, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty(UPPPP) and nasal surgery. Each of the surgeries focuses on different areas of the respiratory path. The type of surgery performed will therefore depend on what is causing the obstruction in each patient’s case.

It may be difficult to diagnose sleep apnea at home and this is ore reason not to ignore any of the warning signs such overtiredness or complaints of snoring from your partner. Seeking treatment for sleep apnea early helps lessens the risk of other associated adverse health complications like heart failure.