Sleep Disordered Breathing

The quality of your sleep affects your daily activities and has a huge impact on your overall quality of life. People who have sleep disordered breathing and bed partners who are kept awake by snoring often suffer from sleep deprivation and are prone to daytime sleepiness. This may

  • Affect your productivity and performance at work,
  • Increase your risk for injury or illness,
  • Increase your chance of having a traffic accident, or
  • Cause strain in your personal relationships.

Associated Health Problems

Sleep disordered breathing is associated with serious health problems. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Chronic sleepiness
  • High blood pressure
  • Heart attack and stroke
  • Reflux (GERD)
  • Morning headaches
  • Obesity
  • Heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Depression
  • Impotence

The options available to patients who want to solve their sleep disordered breathing problems range from simple lifestyle changes to invasive medical procedures.

Lifestyle Changes

There are several factors that can be contributing to your snoring and sleep apnea: being overweight, smoking, drinking alcohol or using muscle relaxants or sleeping pills. All of these things can affect the airway or the brain’s control of the airway muscles during sleep. Lifestyle changes are effective ways of reducing symptoms of sleep apnea. Here are some tips that may help reduce apnea severity:

  • Lose weight.
    If you are overweight, this is the most important action you can take to cure your sleep apnea.
  • Avoid alcohol.

    Alcohol causes frequent nighttime awakenings, and makes the upper airway breathing muscles relax.

  • Quit smoking.
    Cigarette smoking worsens swelling in the upper airway, making apnea (and snoring) worse.

Constant Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP treatment, requires the patient to wear a mask over the nose during sleep. The mask is connected to a small air pressure generator. When the mask is worn, the air pressure inside the throat is increased. The air pressure is adjusted so that it is strong enough to prevent the throat from collapsing during sleep. The CPAP prevents airway closure while it is worn, but apnea episodes will return when CPAP is stopped or if it used improperly.

Surgery

Surgery is the most invasive option for sleep apnea. Only one surgery is currently endorsed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine: the Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP). Surgical procedures may not be helpful in every patient, and their long term effectiveness is unproven. The UPPP has a short-term success rate of about 50% in unselected cases.

The TAP® Oral Appliance

The patient-preferred solution for snoring and sleep apnea is the TAP®, the Thornton Adjustable Positioner. The TAP® is a simple device, similar to teeth whitening trays, that a patient wears when sleeping. It holds your lower jaw forward during the night keeping your airway open.

Please call us at 206-246-4660 to make an appointment to discuss whether a TAP® Oral Appliance could help you.