Helping Patients Achieve Restful Sleep

So sleep apnea can happen to anybody at any age. Unfortunately, it has a stigmatism that most people think it's a larger, middle-aged man with a big neck that's overweight. People can have sleep apnea or upper airway obstruction if they are a 30-year-old female that's tall, thin, and very fit. It really has to do with anatomy. So it could be a deviated septum, allergy. So we have to make sure that they're breathing well and breathing through their nose. It also can be the volume of how large their oropharynx is and how low their soft palate hangs. So during a new patient exam with patients, this always comes up in conversation, because I want to share with them things that they may not be aware of. I always ask them how they're sleeping. We'll ask them some questions. We always take blood pressures. We look at the medications they're on. And I look down their throat to see how open or closed their airway is. And, you know, ask them some probing questions, to see how sleep is. And talk to them about how this can be affecting your overall health if they are having some upper airway obstructive issues or sleep issues, such as sleep apnea. There are different ways that you can treat it. It needs to be diagnosed with a sleep doctor, typically with a sleep study, either at home or at a sleep center. There are appliances that patients will use for that. It could be a CPAP, where there is some forced area going down the throat to help with increasing the oxygen saturation of their blood at night. It could just be as simple as wearing an oral appliance, something that holds their lower jaw forward, or wearing an occlusal guard. So there's different ways we can help the patient figure out, if they do need to have something, what type of appliance is going to work best for them.