The problem with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is that many people don’t realize they have it, and can experience symptoms for years before realizing that something isn’t right. Sleep apnea is a condition that causes you to stop breathing while you sleep, and is caused by mouth and throat tissues clogging the airway. Sleep apnea is often misdiagnosed or confused with nothing more than snoring (loud snoring is one of its trademark symptoms). But its effects on your health and overall quality of life will soon become apparent if you don’t treat it.
Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Loud snoring
As the most pronounced symptom of sleep apnea, snoring is a telltale sign of the condition. As oral tissues collapse into your airway, the space for your breath to pass narrows, causing increasingly loud snoring as air is forced through the smaller space. Patients with sleep apnea will snore exaggeratingly loud, then stop momentarily as their airway is completely blocked and they stop breathing. After a moment, breathing will begin again, and the cycle will repeat itself.
Dry mouth and/or sore throat
Chronic snoring and sleep apnea can leave your mouth and throat dry and sore by the time you wake up in the morning. If you experience this frequently, then you may simply be a mouth-breather when you sleep. However, if it’s accompanied by snoring at night, then you are likely a candidate for sleep apnea treatment.
Sleep deprivation
Your body panics when you stop breathing, which is why it wakes itself up to start again during a sleep apnea episode. Yet the episodes will not typically wake you from consciousness, and you may never realize what’s happening. Still, the constant disruptions to your sleep make it impossible to enter the deep, REM stages of sleep that you need to rest. Over time, sleep apnea patients will begin to experience signs of sleep deprivation, even if they believe that they are sleeping well every night.
ABOUT YOUR ASTORIA, NY, DENTIST:
Jeffrey Leibowitz, DDS, a native New Yorker, has welcomed patients and families from in and around Astoria, NY(including Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and all surrounding communities) since opening his dental practice in 1991. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Leibowitz, call our office in Astoria today at 718-728-8320.
