We all know what it’s like to be exhausted, but few understand this feeling better than someone who deals with sleep apnea. If you think that you may have a sleeping disorder, call Nashua Family Dentistry at 603-546-7460 to schedule a consultation with us for a sleep apnea treatment.
We offer a wide range of services at our Nashua, NH dentist office, including ones that you might not expect a dentist to offer, like sleep apnea treatment.
Sleep apnea is characterized by irregular pauses in breathing during sleep. In some cases, patients may stop breathing multiple times a minute during the night.
To treat this issue, we offer two different solutions:
- A CPAP machine, which uses a small mask to pump air into your nose and/or mouth while you sleep
- An oral appliance, which looks a lot like an athletic mouthguard and is custom-made to slightly shift your jaw while you slumber, opening your airway and allowing you to breathe normally
While each treatment has some perks, they are both great options for patients with sleep apnea. We will discuss both with you to help you figure out which is best for you. Some patients with extreme cases even use them together.
While snoring is one of the common symptoms of sleep apnea, snoring alone is not a dead giveaway that someone has sleep apnea. Just about everyone will snore every now and then, but the kind of snoring caused by sleep apnea is chronic and actually dangerous for a patient’s health.
To find out for sure if you are experiencing sleep apnea, get an evaluation and professional advice from our skilled doctors.
Learn What A Day In The Life Of Having Sleep Apnea Is Like
Along with chronic snoring, sleep apnea has many potential symptoms. If you or your partner are experiencing any of the following, contact us for an evaluation when you are able to:
- Waking suddenly in the night feeling as though you are choking or gasping for air
- Having a dry and/or sore throat first thing in the morning without exhibiting any signs of illness
- Difficulty maintaining focus during the day
- Having trouble staying awake while driving
- Headaches first thing in the morning
- Forgetfulness
- Increased irritability or other mood changes
It’s important to know what to look for when it comes to sleep apnea, but it can be tough to understand what an affliction is truly like just by looking at a list of symptoms. For a more concrete example of what it’s like to have sleep apnea, consider this day in the life:
When your alarm goes off in the morning, you feel as though you haven’t slept even a wink. But you have a big day ahead of you so you drag yourself out of bed. You can’t decide which hurts worse, your head or your throat. To try to dull the pain some, you guzzle some water, gargle a little warm salt water, and gulp down a quick breakfast so you can take a pain reliever.
You have to double-back into the house to grab your car keys, so you’re almost late for work. When you finally do arrive, you end up wasting a little time shaking off the sleepy feeling that’s been with you since you first opened your eyes. To compensate, you drink down a cup of coffee. Or two. Or even three. Your stomach starts to hurt from the coffee but you need to perk up.
You manage to shuffle through your day, despite the exhaustion. Sure, you find it difficult to maintain your focus, but you tell yourself that everyone has days like that. As you’re comforting yourself with that thought, you remember that almost every day this week has felt the same – forgetful and unfocused.
When it’s time to drive home, you have trouble staying awake at the wheel. This might even scare you a little bit because you know how dangerous it can be to drive while drowsy.
You quickly eat dinner and do the bare minimum you need to do to get ready for the next day. When you finally do rest your head, you can’t fall asleep. You feel more awake than you’ve felt all day and this is the precise moment when you actually need to doze off.
If you have sleeping disorder, the team at Nashua Family Dentistry can help. To book a sleep apnea consultation and treatment, call 603-546-7460, use our online form, or stop by our conveniently located Nashua, NH dentist office in person during office hours.