Breathing & Sleep Disorders Solutions

At The Dentist Lounge, our goal is to help you achieve better sleep and improved health through comprehensive airway dentistry.

Understanding Breathing & Sleep Disorders

Sleep apnea is a serious condition that affects many people, often without their knowledge. Modern diets and processed foods have contributed to smaller jaw sizes and underdeveloped airways, increasing the prevalence of sleep-related breathing issues. Epigenetic factors also play a role in these changes. Poor sleep quality can significantly impact your health and longevity. Our airway-centered care is designed to address these underlying issues, helping you breathe better and sleep soundly.

Know the Symptoms

Symptoms of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders (SBD):

Chronic snoring
Dry mouth upon waking
Daytime sleepiness or fatigue
Gasping for air during sleep
Morning headaches

Restlessness
Difficulty concentrating
Memory problems
Frequent nighttime waking, especially to use the restroom
Nighttime clenching/ grinding

Our Airway-Centered Care Treatments

We offer a variety of treatments tailored to improve sleep apnea and other breathing disorders by correcting narrow dental arches, crowded teeth, misaligned bites, and poor oral muscle function.

Functional clear aligner therapy

What it is: Clear aligners like Candid and Invisalign.
How it helps: Treats sleep apnea caused by orthodontic issues, correcting narrow bites, crowded teeth, and creating more room for the tongue, which improves breathing and sleep quality.
Ideal for: Patients with narrow dental arches, severely crowded teeth, or misaligned bites.

Oral appliance therapy

What it is: Non-invasive alternatives to CPAP machines.

Options include:

VIVOS DNA or MRNA Appliance: FDA-cleared devices that provide a potential permanent solution for sleep apnea and snoring by gradually expanding the upper jaw to improve airway function.
Mandibular Advancement Devices (MADs): These devices reposition the lower jaw slightly forward during sleep to keep the airway open and prevent the collapse of soft tissues, thus reducing sleep apnea and snoring.
VIDA Appliance: A nighttime appliance designed to reduce clenching and grinding (bruxism) while enhancing airflow for improved sleep.

Ideal for: Patients looking for comfortable, non-surgical alternatives to CPAP machines.

Myofunctional therapy

What it is: Exercises to retrain the muscles of the mouth, face, and throat.
How it helps: Corrects dysfunctional oral habits such as mouth breathing, tongue thrust, and poor swallowing patterns. Improves breathing, alleviates symptoms of sleep-related breathing disorders, and supports long-term airway health.
Ideal for: Patients with oral muscle dysfunction contributing to sleep-disordered breathing.

Snorelase laser treatment

What it is: An innovative laser treatment.
How it helps: Reduces snoring by targeting and tightening the soft tissues of the throat and soft palate, which reduces vibrations that cause snoring sounds.
Ideal for: Patients suffering from chronic snoring.

Functional Frenuloplasty

What it is: CO2 laser treatment for tongue-tie.
How it helps: Provides a precise and minimally invasive approach to releasing tethered tissue, improving tongue mobility, and enhancing airflow for better breathing and sleep.
Ideal for: Patients with restricted tongue movement affecting their breathing and sleep quality.

Interprofessional collaboration

We collaborate with ENT doctors, sleep physicians, myofunctional therapists, osteopaths, physical therapists, and chiropractors to ensure comprehensive, well-rounded care. This multidisciplinary approach ensures you receive the most effective and personalized treatment plan.

We Sleep 1/3 of Our Lives

Did you know we spend one-third of our lives asleep? These hours are crucial for our bodies to repair, regulate hormones, and consolidate memories. For optimal sleep, our bodies need oxygen.

The Importance of Oxygen:
Our brains and bodies rely on a steady supply of oxygen during sleep to fuel vital processes like tissue repair, hormone regulation, and memory consolidation. If sleep suffers, the whole body feels the strain.

Nasal Breathing vs Mouth Breathing

Humans are designed to breathe through their noses. Nasal breathing:

Filters dust, allergens, and pathogens.
Maintains healthy oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide levels.
Increases oxygen intake by up to 20%.

In contrast, mouth breathing bypasses these benefits, increasing infection risk and leading to oral health issues like inflammation, gum disease, and cavities. Chronic mouth breathing can cause facial and dental problems and contribute to sleep apnea.

The Continuum of Sleep-Disordered Breathing

Sleep-disordered breathing often starts with mouth breathing and can progress to snoring, sleep bruxism (teeth grinding), upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), and eventually obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Possible Results of Untreated SBD & OSA

If left untreated, sleep-related breathing disorders can lead to:

Cardiovascular disease
Type 2 diabetes
Stroke
Dementia (Alzheimer’s)
Cancer

Increased risk of traffic accidents
Chronic daytime fatigue
Impaired cognitive function
Mood disorders
Weight gain or obesity

Better Sleep Begins Here

Screening

Wherever you are in your airway journey, we start with our comprehensive screening process. This includes detailed sleep and breathing questionnaires and thorough oral examinations to identify potential sleep disturbances. Using advanced technology, we achieve accurate diagnoses and a complete understanding of your condition.

CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography):

Provides 3D images of your head and neck to assess airway structure and identify obstructions.

Home Sleep Test (HST):

FDA-approved sleep rings for at-home testing, gathering essential sleep and breathing data.

In severe cases, we facilitate consultations with medical sleep doctors to ensure precise diagnosis and appropriate treatment options.

Here Are The Facts

40% of adults snore.

98% of patients with OSA have abnormal soft and/or hard tissue that causes disproportionate anatomy of the airway.

“A 2012 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that men and women with a diagnosis of sleep apnea are, respectively, 2.4 and 5.2 times more likely to have major depression compared with their better-rested counterparts.” (Direct quote, Stickgold)

Numerous studies show a connection between prolonged sleep deprivation and increased weight gain. Children aged six to nine who slept fewer than 10 hours were 1.5 to 2.5 times more likely to be obese. In adults, there was a 50% increase in obesity among those sleeping fewer than six hours.

Untreated obstructive sleep apnea can disrupt the bodies’ hormone regulation, leading to alterations in glucose metabolism. This results in serious consequences, like insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.

Research shows that having a smaller airway space can actually increase the risk of obstructive sleep apnea, comparable in severity to the risk factors of obesity and aging. Specifically, having a narrow throat passage and a smaller area in the back of your throat can make it harder to breathe while you sleep.

Nearly all patients (97%) have found success with Vivos treatment for sleep apnea, highlighting a breakthrough in non-surgical solutions for sleep disorders.