Description
Sleep apnea means more than just heavy snoring. The condition involves breathing interruptions that can negatively affect your general health. The dentists at Harrison Dental Group can create a custom oral appliance worn during sleep that improves your ability to breathe easy through the night.
View transcript
Sleep apnea is a condition that has to be diagnosed by your physician. What sleep apnea is, is basically when you stop breathing during sleep. It can be a deadly condition. It's very serious. Sleep apnea has many different degrees of severity.
With dentistry, we can actually make an oral appliance that can treat your sleep apnea. It works really well for mild to moderate sleep apnea patients. Essentially, they take the lower jaw and move it forward, which opens up the airway and allows you to breathe better during your sleep. All of our oral appliances work the same way. We have several different types we can make within our office depending on your individual teeth and the shape of your mouth. We try to choose the appliance that's going to work best in your mouth.
Many patients are really uncomfortable with a CPAP when they initially get that from their physician when they've been diagnosed with sleep apnea. These appliances are really no different than a retainer or a mouth guard that many patients wear at night, and they all move the lower jaw forward which opens the airway and can help with sleep apnea.
