Your friends have been asking you to join them on their annual camping trip for years. As much as you want to go, you keep coming up with excuses to avoid it.
The last time you took a camping trip, the main thing you remember is all the complaining. No, not about camping itself, but about your snoring. Throughout that week, your traveling companions all said that your snoring prevented them from getting a good night’s sleep. By the end of the week, everyone was miserable and irritable.
You know snoring is still a problem. Your spouse and your kids still complain about it, too. If that’s the case, you may be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. And if you have OSA, then you may want to visit Perfect-A-Smile Dental Group in Chagrin Falls, OH.
We may have a treatment that can help you stop snoring, help the people around you sleep better, and allow you to accept that invitation to go camping next summer. Call 440-708-0900 to learn more.
Snoring happens when your airways are restricted in some way. That forces air through a smaller opening, which causes soft tissues to vibrate, creating the disruptive noise.
For people with OSA, their muscles relax as they fall asleep. This allows soft tissue to press into their airway. This happens gradually, which can cause the snoring to get louder until their airways become completely blocked. At that point, you stop breathing.
When you stop breathing, your body responds by waking you up. Many times, you have no memory of this happening. This can be just long enough to allow you to take a few breaths before you doze off again. That starts the cycle again, and it can repeat dozens of times per hours and hundreds of times every night.
If that sounds scary, it is. People with OSA have a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as high blood pressure and sleep deprivation (which increases your risk of being in a car accident). The reason you are sleep deprived is that you aren’t able to get deep sleep because you are waking up so often.
To treat your sleep apnea, you need to keep your airway open when you fall asleep. This lets you continue breathing — so you can reach the stages of deep sleep. It also can reduce or end your snoring.
Often, the first treatment patients receive is a CPAP machine. This involves wearing a mask while you sleep and pushing air into your mouth or nose to force your airways open. This can be effective when used consistently, although this is a problem for many patients. This also requires electricity, which can make it inconvenient for people who travel frequently … or useless for those back-to-nature camping trips.
Our treatment has helped many people who have given up on CPAP therapy. We can design an oral appliance that is custom-made for you. By wearing this, you shift the position of your lower jaw. That shift is enough to keep your airway open. It can be carried in a coat pocket, and it does not require electricity, making it great for everyday use or for frequent traveling.
With an oral appliance, your family can rest easier when you stop snoring. You can feel more confident about joining your friends for a week of sleeping outside.
And most importantly you can get relief from your obstructive sleep apnea, so you can wake up feeling rested and refreshed.
To learn more, schedule a consultation with one of our doctors at Perfect-A-Smile in Chagrin Falls, OH. Call 440-708-0900 or fill out our online form today!
