Snoring may be cause for alarm

HOUSTON -- (April 8, 2011) -- Is snoring keeping you or your significant other from getting a good night’s sleep? It could be a serious issue that needs your attention, according to a sleep expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

"Loud snoring, daytime sleepiness and waking up with a sore throat in the morning are all symptoms of sleep apnea," said Dr. Mary Rose, assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at BCM.

Categories of sleep disorders

Sleep apnea is a respiratory sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep, generally speaking there are either complete pauses in breathing (apneas) or partial pauses causing disrupted breathing (hypopneas). A person is deemed to have sleep apnea when they have 5 or more of these pauses during the night.

This can result in feelings of depression and a reduction in concentration.

Common causes of sleep apnea

This condition gets worse as we get older and is more common in men than women, and if left untreated can result in high blood pressure, strokes or other heart problems. The night episodes can also result in a reduction in concentration levels with headaches being a common complaint.

These effects of sleep apnea can then result in reduced function during the day, especially bad for people at work.


Treatments

For bad cases of sleep apnea one of the most effective treatments is to use a positive pressure air machine, this pushes air in to the patients airway and prevents it from becoming obstructed during the night.

For more moderate to mild cases an oral device which ensures the airway stays open can work well. These devices work by gently pulling the lower jaw forwards; due to the connectivity of the muscles this in turn keeps the airway open. Our recommendation for this device is the Sleepwell Anti Snoring Device.

Why do you snore?

Here are a few tests you can easily do at home to find out why you might be snoring.

Nose Test

Close off one nostril with your finger, then looking in the mirror, and with your mouth closed, breathe in and try to get you open nostril to close with the inflow of air. If it does your nostrils may be collapsing at night and some nasal drops may help.

Now try this. Close your mouth and breathe in deeply through your nose. if you find it hard to do this you may be suffering from nasal stuffiness. This could be caused by an allergy at night, so try using feather pillows and deep cleaning the bed to remove pet hair and/or dust mites.


Mouth Breathing Test

With your mouth open try to make the snoring noise, now try it again with your mouth closed. If you only findit possible to snore with your mouth open then you could be a mouth breather

Your could try Snore Calm Chin-Up Strips which will keep your mouth closed, or a Somni Snore Guard which will encourage you to breathe correctly through your nose


Tongue Test

Try sticking your tongue out and as far as you can and grab it with your fingers, now try to make a snoring noise. If you find the snoring noise is reduced then you might be a tongue based snorer and a device which holds your lower jaw forwards at night could help.

A SleepWell anti snoring device could work well.

You may also find help on this snoring discussion forum

How to Stop Snoring Tonight...

The papers have been flooded this week with interesting articles all about sleep.

According to a survey published by the Etap hotel group, a quarter of married couples now sleep apart. Not all together surprisingly, the main cause for this is sleep being disturbed by a partner’s loud snoring, making nodding off at night near to impossible.

Here’s what one lady said:

‘I couldn’t stand Mike’s snoring, and would have to wake him to stop it — which meant that neither of us was getting a decent night’s sleep. 

“The solution was obvious. I now sleep in the marital bed, as I like to sit up and read, and Mike has moved to the single bed in the spare room.”

Indeed, this is the advice that’s become very popular at the moment, and is backed by some of the well-respected sleeping disorder websites.

I have to say this; it doesn’t sound like much of a solution to me.

So why I am I telling you this?

Having studied both snoring and a related condition called Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, I know that men snore a lot more than women. I know that it’s not usually the snorer that suffers, but rather the unfortunate sleeping partner.

I also know that attempts to stop snoring up until now have seen little success.

There are a plethora of cures for snoring, from sewing tennis balls into the back of your pyjamas to tapes across the bridge of your nose. I even heard last weekend of a friend whose wife insisted on surgery to remove his uvula (the dangly bit at the back of your mouth.) It’s very painful and not very effective.

The “gold standard for anti-snoring treatment is a device called a C Pap which involves sleeping with a special mask over your mouth and nose. However, there is now a very successful dental cure.

A dental appliance called a Mandibular Advancement Splint (Sleepwell™). It’s a very simple concept and brings with it really tremendous results. All it involves is positioning the lower jaw slightly forward, together with the tongue, and so increasing the airway and stopping snoring. It’s very effective, simple and relatively inexpensive.

So there’s now no need to have your sleep interrupted by your partner and certainly no need to find the extra bed. Everyone deserves the benefits of a good night’s sleep, including you.

When to start Orthodontics?

Orthodontics is the branch of dentistry concerned with straightening crooked teeth with braces.

Most people want their children to grow up with healthy, straight teeth. Some youngsters are just naturally blessed with straight teeth, but many need the help of a skilled orthodontist in order to fulfil their full dental potential. However, orthodontics is not just confined to children and many adults are now getting their smiles straightened out.

Children’s adult teeth normally come through between the ages of 6 and 13 as the baby teeth are shed. Some children have all their adult teeth earlier than this and some are a bit later. Girls tend to be a bit ahead of boys.

Orthodontics are usually provided after the baby teeth have all been lost. So commonly the early teenage years are when children get their braces.

There are some circumstances when children need braces at an earlier age than this. Also, some children need two courses of orthodontics; one at a young age to correct some specific development problems, and then again at the usual time.

Some children who need orthodontics never go on to get braces because their oral hygiene (how well they clean their teeth) is never good enough, their decay rate ( how many new cavities they develop) is too high or they have a bad habit such as thumb-sucking.

In these cases, braces may either not work or do more harm than good so, unless they can improve their bad habits, orthodontics will always be a no-no.

What Can Happen If Dental Pain Is Ignored?

It is perfectly understandable-many people try to “tough it out”…”true grit”…some people think it is “soft” to go to a dentist for “a little tooth ache” or an annual check up… however, constant or regularly reoccurring teeth problems is your mouth’s (only) way of warning you…maybe a potentially serious problem exists…pain is an alarm that should not be ignored!

IT COULD GRADUALLY GET WORSE

YOU COULD LOSE TIME AT WORK

IT COULD COST YOU A FORTUNE IN THE LONG RUN

After back pain, dental problems are one of the leading cause of time lost from work. In these days of company downsizing and job insecurity, you want to be at work and be your best when you are there.

IT COULD MAKE FUTURE NECESSARY DENTAL CARE MORE DIFFICULT, MORE TIME CONSUMING, MORE COSTLY AND LESS EFFECTIVE.

Delaying needed treatment…masking pain with aspirin, other drugs…may only succeed at making treatment more difficult when time comes that you no longer put it off.

IT COULD CREATE A NEED FOR DENTAL SURGERY.

Dental Surgery is no minor matter. Going “under the knife” always has some element of risk. Your ability to work, eat properly and play may be restricted after surgery. Surgery and recovery can be very costly.

JUST ASK YOURSELF THESE THREE QUESTIONS IF YOU’RE PUTTING OFF A DENTAL PROBLEM:

Is the clinical condition going to get better or get worse if left?

Is the dental treatment going to become easier or become more complicated the longer it’s left?

Is the cost of treatment in the future EVER going to be less than it is now, or is it going to go up year after year?

Ugly Ducklings and anxiety about your children's teeth

Many parents get anxious about their children’s teeth.

One of the most common concerns I see is nothing to do with any toothache issue, but is to do with front teeth starting to come through.

What ideally happens at about the age of 6 is that the front baby teeth, one by one, become loose, fall out and are replaced with new adult teeth.

However, in real life this process isn’t always quite so smooth.

Sometimes the adult teeth come through before the baby teeth have been shed. When this happens, they usually come through on the inside of the baby teeth and so little Johnnie seems to have too many teeth and they look wrong.

Sometimes the adult teeth take ages to come through and so little Sophie has missing teeth at the front for quite some time.

And sometimes, the baby teeth are very late in being lost and so the child is the only one in the class who still has baby teeth.

When they do finally arrive, they usually come through as crooked teeth. The reason for this is that they are full sized teeth, trying to fit into a child-sized mouth. The good news is that this usually corrects itself as the child’s mouth grows and things get better without any kind of intervention.

So don’t panic when your child who always had beautiful little baby teeth suddenly looks like Dracula. In dental terms, we call this the “Ugly Duckling” stage, and they usually end up as beautiful swans.

Do all missing teeth need to be replaced?

Absolutely no!

Teeth are optional. There’s no law saying that everyone has to have 32 teeth.


It’s not like running a car where getting an annual MOT is a legal requirement. As far as I am aware, it’s not illegal to be missing some teeth.


Lots of people have various missing teeth and it does them no harm at all.


So how do dentists work out which ones need replacing and which ones don’t.


Well, here’s my feelings on the matter.


Does it show? 
Most people don’t want to have gaps in their smile. However, many people are just unaware of how they look when they smile and just how many teeth they show, because they only see themselves in a mirror front view only. If they could see themselves from the side, especially when they are smiling widely or laughing, they could really see what shows and what doesn’t. So if you’re not sure, ask someone else if they can see the gaps.


Can I chew OK?
The more spaces there are, the harder it is to chew your food properly. This can have effects on food digestion as well as being embarrassing socially. Amazingly, there are people who manage to eat loads of things without any teeth at all, just by using their gums! You’ll know if you are missing out on the pleasures of being able to eat whatever you want. The people you eat with will know if you’re taking twice as long to chew as everyone else.


Is it causing any harm?
Although it can be hard to notice it because it happens slowly, teeth will often move around if there are gaps. Missing teeth can lead to the neighbouring teeth tilting and the opposing teeth (that’s the teeth in the opposite jaw to the gaps) moving drastically out of position. This, in turn, can lead to the other teeth decaying, which can cause big problems. You may not notice this movement, but your dentist will be aware of it.


Is it right at the back?
Generally, I don’t advise replacing missing teeth that are right at the back of the mouth, provided that people have enough other teeth elsewhere. The benefits of having them are often outweighed by the difficulties, costs and risks of replacing them.


I hope this helps, do let me know your own thoughts