Your dentist can help you stop snoring. As many as one third of people snore. The effects of snoring can be serious, both socially and medically. While there have been many antisnoring remedies in the past, your dentist can help you with devices that are more effective and less invasive than many.
To know how your dentist can help eliminate snoring, you have to know what causes it. Snoring is caused by air moving through and vibrating the soft tissues at the back of your throat. As you sleep, the airway is narrowed, and the velocity of the air moving through it is increased. The air can vibrate against your uvula, [the thing that hangs down at the back of your throat], and your soft palate. This produces noisy breathing, or snoring.
There are some factors that can make snoring worse. Alcohol or drug use can affect the way you sleep and decrease muscle tone at the back of the throat, which further narrows the air way, making snoring worse. Also, if you are overweight, your airway may be narrower. Snoring can also be triggered, new research shows, by a hidden food allergy.
A deviated septum, an abnormality in the shape of a nasal bone, can also make it more difficult for air to pass through the nose and air way resulting in snoring. Doing what you can on your own, such as attempting to lose weight and not consume drugs or alcohol just before sleep, can help to reduce snoring. Other ways to resolve some of these issues can be provided by your dentist.
Is snoring serious? It can be, and it can lead to serious conditions. Both socially and medically, it is in your best interest to do what you can to stop snoring.
Socially, the person who snores isn’t bothered by the snoring. Their partner, however, is. It can disrupt the sleep of the partner to the point where they may need to wear ear plugs or sleep somewhere else entirely. This may cause bad feelings in the partner and stress in the family. Reduction or cessation of snoring will resolve these issues.
Medically, snoring can be a precursor or an indicator of more serious issues, as well as being significant in itself. A person who snores heavily has a more restless sleep and is awakened frequently. A good night’s sleep is essential for good health, and even on this basis alone it may be valuable to reduce snoring.
Snoring can also be a precursor or an indicator of obstructive sleep apnea. This condition occurs when the airway is obstructed and a person stops breathing entirely for more than 10 seconds. Someone with sleep apnea can have anywhere from 30 to 300 episodes a night.
A sleep apnea condition leads to daytime sleepiness, which can impair a person’s ability to drive or operate heavy machinery. It is also linked to heart problems, high blood pressure and stroke. While snoring is not the same as sleep apnea, many of the treatments used to stop snoring may also help with treating the apnea.
So, what can your dentist do to reduce or eliminate snoring? These days, there are a few things. The dentist can create an implant custom shaped to fit your mouth which will hold your jaws and bones in a way that does not block your air way and will allow free movement of the air around them.
Snoring implants makes it easier to breath and decreases the strength of the air flow, which will decrease the vibrations of the soft tissues in your throat and make your breathing less noisy, or stop your snoring. Alternatively, palatal implants can be placed into the soft palate to make it less likely to vibrate, therefore reducing snoring.
Snoring can be disruptive to your sleep, your family life and your health. Once you’ve done what you can on your own to reduce snoring, why not see your dentist to find out what he can do to help with the rest? Why deal with the hassles caused by your snoring, both the minor and the more serious? Consult with your dentist today and ask him how he can help you stop snoring.
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