A Dental Screening May Be Key to a Good Night’s Rest

Hi everyone!

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a breathing disorder in which breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted during sleep. These episodes are called apneas (literally, “without breath”) and last at least nine seconds. Some people have episodes of hypopnea, which means breathing that is partially (but substantially) obstructed.

OSA most often occurs when the airway muscles fail to keep the airway open during sleep. Most people who suffer from sleep apnea don’t know it. According to the World Health Organization approximately 100 million people worldwide have OSA. In the United States, OSA is estimated to affect 1 in 4 men and 1 in 9 women; and affects 23 million working adults.

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Study Reveals that Treating Sleep Apnea May Prevent Heart Disease

By Dr Langberg

Hi everyone!

A recent study reveals that people with Type 2 diabetes and people with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) share the same early signs of cardiovascular damage. This study was presented the week of December 5th at the annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging in Athens, Greece.

The most common type of sleep apnea is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA occurs when the airway collapses or becomes blocked during sleep, usually by the tongue or the soft palate. We are all familiar with partial obstruction or, more commonly, snoring! To be an apnea, the breathing has to be totally obstructed for at least 10 seconds and the oxygen (O²) in your blood has to drop by 4%. These apneas end when the brain, sensing suffocation, partially arouses us just enough to “consciously” open the airway. This is usually heard by the bed partner as a snort, gasp, or choke, after which the cycle repeats itself. When sleeping, obstructive breathing stops can last anywhere from mere seconds to tens of seconds, and can occur from 5 to over 100 times or more an hour! The number of apneas per hour are scored as your AHI (apnea-hypopnea index), whereas your RDI (Respiratory Disturbance Index) scores total breathing disruptions per hour, even those less than 10 seconds duration.

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Dental Appliances for Sleep Apnea

By Dr Langberg

Sleep Apnea Dental Appliances

Hi everyone!

Today’s blog concerns new treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a growing health risk in the US, with dental appliances as an alternative to the more cumbersome CPAP, or “Continuous Positive Air Pressure” masks.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

OSA is a debilitating sleep breathing disorder defined by a cessation of breathing for at least 10 seconds resulting in a lowering of your body’s blood oxygen (an “apnea”). When this occurs the brain reacts by disrupting deep sleep and arousing you just enough to start breathing again. OSA sufferers never get a “good night’s sleep” because the repeated apneas and arousals deprive them of REM and deep stage restorative sleep and lead to chronic daytime exhaustion, mood alteration and depression, deteriorating work performance, as well as long term cardiovascular stress. OSA is associated with high blood pressure (hypertension), irregular heart beat (arrhythmias), stroke, congestive heart failure, GERD (reflux disease) and diabetes. [Read more…]

New home sleep test device for snoring or sleep breathing disorders

By Dr Langberg

Hi everyone! ARES home sleep tester

Are you one of the millions of Americans who suspect that they are suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), but refuse to go to a sleep specialist because you are put off by the prospect of spending a night in an unfamiliar setting in a sleep lab, attached to a jumble of wires to find out? More than 40 million Americans are estimated to suffer from a sleep breathing disorder, and 20 million suffer from OSA. Despite the high prevalence, 93% of women and 82% of men with moderate to severe OSA remain undiagnosed according to the National Sleep Foundation site.

I am now offering patients ARES^TM, the first FDA-approved wireless portable sleep test device for diagnosing Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) while sleeping at home in your own bed. The small size allows the device to be comfortably worn in all sleep positions. The test costs less that 10 percent of the typical sleep lab test.

Watermark Medical of West Palm Beach, Fla., markets the easy-to-wear home use device that revolutionizes sleep testing. I am one of the first dentists in the metropolitan Detroit area to offer ARES to patients. We are using home sleep testing (polysomnography, or PSG) as a screening device for patients who suspect they have sleep apnea but are not convinced enough to actually go to a sleep doctor for an overnight (hospital) sleep study. If the ARES does detect measureable apnea, then we typically will recommend that you go to a sleep specialist for a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan. We work closely with several excellent sleep specialists (MD’s) in the area and will arrange for you to be examined by them before initiating any treatment. Often that treatment will consist of an oral appliance which is worn at night to open your airway. After we fabricate your appliance, we will use the ARES home sleep test to confirm that your appliance is working properly and actually treating your apnea, and not just stopping your snoring. This is important because we want to be certain that the appliance treatment is effective before you return to the sleep specialist for your follow up examination and PSG.

The ARES^TM is worn on your forehead and is usually only worn for one night but can acquire and store up to three nights of sleep data. It provides a detailed profile of your breathing during sleep in your own bedroom in your own bed. The device painlessly collects physiological data while you are asleep and integrates the data with clinical history and physical data to determine presence and severity of OSA. The sleep study data is sent to a national network of board-certified sleep medicine professionals, who interpret the sleep study and returns the report and your data to me electronically within a day.

In these challenging economic times, this is certainly an effective, low-cost alternative to the current sleep-testing solutions available. And FYI, I typically include the cost of this follow up testing in the fee for your oral appliance. I’m fairly certain I am one of the only dentists in southeastern Michigan to do this.

For more information about ARES^TM and Watermark Medical go to www.watermarkmedical.com or e-mail at info@watermarkmedical. And for more information about sleep disordered breathing and dental treatment for sleep apnea please contact me at 248-356-8790 or visit my website at drmarklangberg.wpenginepowered.com

So until next time, be well!

Mark Langberg, DDS, MAGD