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.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.