Getting a good night’s sleep is important – it gives our bodies enough time to heal and improve, our minds to settle and reset, and time out of the stressors of our everyday lives. But for 20% of Americans, sleep apnea is causing them to have very poor sleep conditions. What’s worse? There are plenty more that are undiagnosed.
If you are unaware of what sleep apnea is, it is essentially a sleep disorder that causes your body to choke on itself repeatedly while you sleep. Obviously, this is as dangerous as it sounds, especially is the episodes last for longer than a minute. The problem is, we’re sleeping so we don’t necessarily know if we snore or have restless sleep unless a significant other is affected.
Believe it or not, a simple dentist appointment can give you the answers you seek. During a typical checkup, your dental professional will look for the following:
- Acid reflux disease
- Macroglossia, or a large tongue
- Bruxism, or teeth grinding
At Extraordinary Smiles, we have special equipment that can help to efficiently measure the size, structure and collapsibility of your oral and nasal airway – the Eccovision Acoustic Diagnostic Imaging System. Don’t worry – it isn’t as scary as those technical words sound.
With both the Acoustic Pharyngometer and the Acoustic Rhinometer, sleep dentists can measure the size of your airways with sound waves in order to diagnose if they are too narrow or have obstructions that are causing you to have sleep apnea. But these fancy machines don’t make this testing a long, arduous process. They both take less than five minutes – no more reason to have another night of restless sleep!
For more information about sleep apnea, call Dr. Sandip Ladani in Schnecksville, PA at 610-799-0600 or visit www.extraordinarysmiles.net.
Dr. Ladani proudly serve patients from Schnecksville and all surrounding areas.
