What is Airway Dentistry?
How Airway Dentistry Can Change How Well You Sleep
If you’re waking up tired every morning, even though you’ve got the heaviest blackout curtains, the softest sound machine, and doze off to the best ASMR every night, the problem might not be with your sleep hygiene. It might be time to look into airway dentistry. Airway dentistry is changing the game when it comes to getting a great night’s sleep, eliminating the need for those loud, obnoxious CPAP machines. Want a better night’s sleep without the circus of a CPAP? Keep reading to learn more about airway dentistry, how your poor sleep is impacting your body, and signs that it is time to see an airway dentist.
What is Airway Dentistry?
Airway dentistry is a specialized field of dentistry. Your teeth and the way your mouth has formed can greatly impact your breathing. When you are asleep, all of your muscles relax, and this can sometimes include the muscles around your airway. When your teeth and mouth restrict your breathing, you can develop sleep apnea, which is a serious sleep disorder.
Many people run straight to their doctor to get a sleep test and eventually get prescribed a CPAP machine for their sleep apnea issues. While CPAP machines do help get air into your airway, it does nothing to actually improve your condition.
That’s where sleep dentists and airway dentistry come in.
You can get fitted for a custom mouthpiece that can, over time, fix your teeth and mouth to allow air back into your airway and fix your sleep apnea issues without the lifetime sentence of a CPAP machine.
How Your Disordered Sleep Impacts You
If you wake frequently throughout the night, are sluggish during the day, and get complaints from your family that you snore, don’t just brush it off. Your disordered sleep is seriously impacting your body and your life in many ways that you might not be realizing. Some of this includes your weight, your mental health, your cardiovascular system, and your risk of developing some serious health issues.
Weight Gain
Poor sleep can cause weight gain, and sleep apnea can make it very difficult for you to lose weight if you are trying to. Here’s why:
Just as weight gain may increase the risk for sleep apnea, untreated sleep apnea may indirectly cause weight gain.
Sleep disruption of any kind affects the circadian system.
An altered circadian system is associated with changes in eating patterns, which, in turn, may affect weight. It can also lead to hyperglycemia, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. You can read more about this relationship in our Obesity Algorithm.
OSA, specifically, is associated with glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. Lipid abnormalities associated with OSA include high triglycerides and low HDL. Hormones related to obesity are also altered by OSA. Ghrelin, an appetite stimulant, is higher in patients with OSA.
Sleep deprivation tends to lower leptin production, a possible reason that poor sleep may contribute to obesity. Leptin, a hormone produced by adipose tissue, functions in the hypothalamus to signal satiety to the brain.
Adiponectin is another adipokine that improves glucose control and lipid metabolism and may reduce inflammation and atherosclerosis. Levels of adiponectin are reduced in both obesity and obstructive sleep apnea.
Another, perhaps shockingly, straightforward way in which OSA affects weight is that it can make someone too tired to exercise. Physical activity, one of the four pillars of obesity treatment, is important for maintaining a healthy weight.
Mental Health Issues
It’s no secret that when you are tired, you don’t have enough energy to be excited, happy, or patient. After a rough night’s sleep, you will find yourself struggling to get through the day, and night after night, this can compound.
As such, people with sleep disorders often suffer from mental health issues. Depression and anxiety are very common co-occurring disorders with sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. If you are struggling with your mental health and also do not get a good night’s sleep, wake up frequently throughout the night, or snore, you may see your mental health symptoms greatly improve when you address your sleep issues.
Cardiovascular Issues
One of the many issues that can develop from untreated sleep apnea is cardiovascular issues. According to a Harvard University study, nighttime interruptions in breathing, or “apneas,” starve the brain of oxygen and stress out the cardiovascular system. Inadequately treated OSA comes with a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
High blood pressure causes cardiovascular issues that can be dangerous to the body in many ways. It can cause damage to the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, and eyes that can sometimes be irreversible.
More risks for untreated high blood pressure include:
- Increased risk for heart attack, stroke, hypertension, and heart failure
- Vision problems
- Kidney damage
- Sexual dysfunction
- Increased anxiety
- Dizziness
- Dementia
High Risk of Serious Health Issues
Sleep apnea is a condition that does not improve with time. It is chronic and only worsens the longer you go untreated. Untreated sleep apnea can increase your risk for a wide range of serious health issues, including:
- Memory loss and dementia
- Excessive stress
- Cardiovascular strain
- Erectile dysfunction
- Increased risk for accidents
- Weight gain
- Diabetes
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Heart attack
What to Expect with Airway Dentistry
At Gorman Health and Wellness, we are Vivos-trained dentists. We will conduct a comprehensive evaluation, taking all relevant clinical records, in order to formulate a customized treatment plan. This treatment plan will likely include a number of integrative therapies that have been proven to ensure the best treatment outcomes.
Unlike virtually every other nonsurgical treatment for OSA which require nightly lifetime intervention, studies show that patients undergoing treatment with Vivos doctors have an average treatment time of about 12 months. Our treatment employs a multidisciplinary treatment plan that uses noninvasive, cost-effective oral appliance technology prescribed by trained dentists and medical professionals to treat dentofacial abnormalities and/or mild, moderate, and severe OSA and snoring. This revolutionary treatment is called The Vivos Method.
Recently, Vivos has been granted 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adults using the Vivos’ removable CARE (Complete Airway Repositioning and/or Expansion) oral appliances. Vivos’ CARE appliances include the flagship DNA oral appliance, the mRNA oral appliance, and the mmRNA oral appliance. Whether your sleep apnea symptoms are mild or severe, Vivos can help you.
The Problem with CPAP Machines
When you think of sleep apnea treatment, you likely picture a CPAP machine. This is the most commonly prescribed treatment; however, it is just a band-aid that does nothing to actually cure your issues.
CPAP machines are so commonly prescribed because they help everybody. It forces air into your airways and delivers the oxygen your lungs need, which leads to better sleep. However, when you stop using your CPAP machine, your sleep apnea symptoms come right back.
CPAP machines are also:
- Very loud and does not offer a relief from noise for bed partners
- Bulky and uncomfortable
- Difficult to maintain
- Dangerous, as they have been the subject of recalls
There are other ways to treat sleep apnea, including less invasive approaches that do not involve a loud, big, bulky, embarrassing machine getting strapped to your face.
Can Airway Dentistry Help My Child?
Yes, sleep apnea can happen in children and airway dentistry is the ideal way to treat children suffering from it.
Approximately 10% of children snore regularly, 25-40% of children have sleep-disordered breathing, and about 2-4% of children experience obstructive sleep apnea, which is when a person stops breathing for 10 or more seconds during sleep. Children 3 years of age and older tend to let out some snores during deep sleep stages; however, loud and regular snoring is not common and should be reported to your pediatrician.
This is especially true if your child’s snoring interrupts their sleep. Occasional light snoring that does not happen more than 2 times a week is normal; however, it should not be interrupting their sleep. Sleep apnea in children can seriously affect the child’s quality of life in a number of ways, including:
- Impaired brain development
- Reduced academic performance
- Cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure
- Altered metabolism
- Behavior problems
When Should I See an Airway Dentist?
Wondering if it’s time you see an airway dentist? Here are some signs it’s time to make the call:
- You don’t sleep well. If you wake up frequently throughout the night, especially to urinate, and aren’t sure why, it might be due to sleep apnea.
- People tell you that you snore. Snoring is the hallmark symptom of sleep apnea and isn’t something you should ignore. If it is common knowledge that you are a snorer, it is time to get it treated before it leads you to more serious health complications.
- You are tired all day. Excessive daytime sleepiness is a common symptom of sleep apnea. It will only worsen and begin to affect every aspect of your life.
- Your anxiety or depression is worsening. If you aren’t sure why your depression or anxiety is worsening, especially with the help of medications, it is time to address your sleep disorder.
- You are gaining weight or can’t lose weight. Weight gain or the inability to lose weight is a common symptom of sleep disorders, and addressing these issues can finally help you get your health back on track.
- You’ve tried everything else. No matter how much sleepy tea you drink, how dark your room is, or how snuggly your bed is, your sleep will not improve unless you address your airway issues.
Airway Dentistry With Gorman Health and Wellness
Dr. Gorman is a part of the breathing wellness movement, which aims to increase awareness and improve treatment for sleep-related airway conditions like sleep apnea. He has partnered with organizations focused on collaborating with dentists to apply the sciences of Craniofacial Epigenetics (the study of cranial modifications caused by gene expression as opposed to genetic code alteration) and Pneumopedics® (the practical application of oral appliance therapy and non-surgical airway remodeling) in the management of sleep apnea.
Together, the application of these sciences allows for the underlying causes of airway obstruction to be treated in 98% of cases, resulting in a high success rate among sleep apnea patients.
For every sleep apnea case at our practice, Dr. Gorman will gather patient data and determine the patient’s specific needs based on home sleep test results, dental impressions, CT scans, and images.
Our state-of-the-art technology, paired with Dr. Gorman’s experience with sleep disorders, allows him to find the most effective treatment plan for each individual’s particular case, yielding improved daytime and nighttime breathing for the patient.
“I have been helping people suffering from Sleep Apnea with a non-invasive, clinically approved treatment method. This method has allowed my patients to sleep with far fewer events per hour, allowing them to get rid of their CPAP and BiPAP machines. Imagine not having to use one of those machines, getting back a much greater quality of life along with the benefits of being able to breathe better.” – Dr. Gorman.
For more information on Dr. Gorman and improving your sleep apnea issues and poor sleep, visit MGormanDental.com!
