Want to Stop Snoring? Learn Why it Happens and How to Fight It

The Truth Behind the Inconvenient (and Unsafe) Snoring Habit

Snoring is a condition that affects more than 90 million American adults. This harsh, noisy breathing during sleep can be disruptive to your sleeping pattern. It can also be a huge inconvenience to your sleep partner. While some cases are relatively mild, others are indicators that your health may be at serious risk.

Snoring worsens with age, so it is important to identify exactly what is causing this potentially unsafe condition and ways to stop your snoring altogether.

Why Causes Snoring?

Snoring is triggered as a result of the relaxation of your throat muscles. During this time, the tissues at the top of the airways touch and create a vibration as you breathe in and out. These vibrations create “hoarse, noisy breathing”, or snoring. The occurrence and intensity of one’s snoring is measured by several factors, such as:

• Weight: Excess weight is a common trigger of snoring. The excess fat that gathers in and around the throat creates an obstruction of air.
• Drug/Alcohol Consumption: Drugs and alcohol are huge muscle relaxants.
• Consuming Dairy/Late Night Eating: Foods high in dairy content, such as cheese and ice cream, produce excess mucus that can cause snoring. The process of digesting a heavy, late night meal also triggers the relaxation of the throat and tongue.

Snoring is also known to negatively impact the oral cavity and can lead to a number of oral health issues such as gum disease, tooth decay and halitosis(bad breath).

Snoring Vs. Sleep Apnea

While many believe that snoring is just an inconvenient habit, it can actually be an indicator of a much more serious health condition. In more extensive cases, snoring can be an indicator of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This is a chronic sleep disorder where the throat relaxes during sleep (much like snoring). However, during this time, the soft tissue in the back of the throat closes completely, causing pauses in breathing. These obstructions in air flow are called apneas.

If left untreated, OSA can lead to a series of life-threatening risks, such as:

• High Blood Pressure
• Stroke
• Heart Disease
• Diabetes
• Depression

There are Ways to Overcome Your Snoring Problem

There are ways to remedy most snoring problems—from simple, everyday preventative measures for milder cases to devices that help promote healthier sleep.

Some natural ways to lessen the severity of your snoring habit include:

• Adjust Your Sleeping Position: Lying on your back may cause your tongue to roll backward—this is what triggers the vibrations in your throat. Try sleeping on your side to prevent this. You can also try reclining the bed, which extends the neck and opens up the nasal passageways.
• Avoid Late Night Eating: Stay away from the same dairy-based/heavy meals that cause snoring in the first place.
• Maintain a Healthy Weight: While snoring is also common amongst people who have a healthy weight, this can be a useful preventative measure. People who develop a snoring habit after gaining weight can most likely attribute their habit to weight gain.
• Keep a Healthy Sleep Schedule: If you’re not getting enough sleep, chances are you’ll sleep pretty deeply when you finally do get to rest. This deep state of sleep can cause your muscles to become more relaxed than usual, which will cause snoring.

Silent Nite Sleeping Device

Beaufils Dental suggests the use of a device called Silent Nite to help relieve your snoring. Silent Nite is an affordable, non-invasive, and effective solution that is prescribed to the majority of snorers.

The Silent Nite device positions the lower jaw into a forward position by means of special connectors that are attached to transparent flexible upper and lower forms.The forms are custom laminated with heat and pressure, creating a comfortable fit for nighttime wear. At Beaufils Dental, we like to evaluate our Cooper City clients to determine if Silent Nite is the right fit for obtaining healthier sleep. We also reference a simple checklist to help determine the exact design of a patient’s Silent Nite device.

Take Action Against Snoring

Is your chronic snoring disrupting the quality of your sleep and the sleep of those around you? Fortunately, there are ways to decrease the severity of this uncomfortable habit–even eliminate it altogether. At Beaufils Dental, we can advise if you are a candidate for anti-snoring devices such as Silent Nite. The first step to preventing this uncomfortable habit is to take action. Call us today at 954-252-1390 for a free consultation to learn more about how snoring affects your oral health and how you can put a stop to it.