Snoring can cause restless nights for you and others who share your home. While the noise may disturb other people, snoring is a symptom of a condition with far more serious consequences for you—sleep apnea. With obstructive sleep apnea, the soft tissues of your tongue, soft palate, and neck collapse onto your windpipe while you sleep, causing snoring. Because your airway is blocked, you may also stop breathing multiple times each night. One immediate effect of this is persistent daytime fatigue, which can interfere with your personal and professional activities. Worse still, sleep apnea has been linked to several serious health issues including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, adult asthma, acid reflux, weight gain, and other complications. Our team here at Coastal Connecticut Dentistry can stop your sleep apnea with a custom-fitted mouth guard that keeps your airway open throughout the night!
After an initial consultation at our Waterford, CT office, you will be diagnosed through lab-based or at-home testing, which we can help coordinate with another provider. Upon confirmation, our team will fit you with a mouth guard, a device that enables you to alleviate your sleep apnea from the convenience of home. Similar in appearance to those used in sports, these mouthguards slip over your bottom and top arches of teeth and shift your lower jaw slightly forward to prevent your soft tissues from obstructing your windpipe. Your mouth guard will be individually created to comfortably fit in your mouth and provide optimal results. They may be all that’s standing between you and healthier, more restful nights and energetic days.