dental articles from 2 Dental.com

By: Evan Langsted

Snoring may seem like a mere annoyance to most people. But sometimes, snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, a serious medical condition that affects over 20 million Americans and drastically reduces their quality of life. In extreme cases, it can lead to death.

The word “apnea” is derived from a Greek word that means “want of breath.” In order to be diagnosed with sleep apnea, one must experience stoppage of breathing for a period of at least ten seconds more than five times in one hour. All of this counteracts the healing, restorative effects that nourishing deep sleep is meant to provide. Sleep is critical to health, just as important as a healthy diet and physical activity.

If it goes untreated for lengths of time, obstructive sleep apnea leads to hypertension, strokes, muscle pain, heart attacks, morning headaches and excessive daytime drowsiness. Many who have mild sleep apnea know that they snore while they sleep. At the same time, they may not link this and their daytime fatigue to the potentially life-threatening larger problems that could eventually make themselves known.

Symptoms

Sleep apnea makes its presence known in a variety of ways. And with the wide array of symptoms, different people may experience widely different combinations of the following:

* Excessive daytime sleepiness
* Morning headaches/migraines (these may also be the result of a jaw joint problem known as temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). It’s best to consult a dentist who is also experienced in neuromuscular dentistry
* Short term memory problems
* Inability to lose weight
* Memory and concentration difficulties
* Poor job performance or problems in school
* Restlessness and tossing and turning during sleep
* Heavy snoring (more commonly occurs in patients with obstructive sleep apnea, rather than central sleep apnea)

If you notice you’re experiencing any of these, please keep in mind that they could be indicators of sleep apnea. Ignoring them could potentially result in major health risks, not to mention the diminished day-to-day concentration, which affects things like your job and being an active member of society. One potentially disastrous after-effect to keep in mind is experiencing drowsiness while driving, too. In children, academic underachievement and substandard mental development have been linked to sleep apnea.
About the Author:

If you suffer from sleep apnea, or wish to be tested for it please visit the website of Gurnee, Illinois dentist Dr. Ira Shapira.

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