Sleep Better

Flatlands Family Dental works with sleep apnea dental patients in the Brooklyn area. Obstructive Sleep Apnea is very common and if left untreated can cause individuals to stop breathing during their sleep for a minute or more. Each time this happens the brain will wake a person up for a moment in order to get them breathing again, which results in sleep being interrupted frequently and leaving the individual tired throughout the day.

When the tongue is causing restriction of the upper airway and causes air to stop flowing this is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). It is a common disorder that can develop into more severe respiratory or cardiovascular problems if left untreated. Symptoms of OSA include loud snoring, waking up to use the restroom frequently, feeling tired or falling asleep during the day and being 30+ pounds overweight with a large neck size.

Snoring is caused when the muscles and soft tissue in the throat and mouth relax making the breathing airway smaller. A relaxed and/or collapsed airway produces soft tissue vibrations during breathing and snoring is the result.

An oral appliance can greatly reduce or stop snoring for most people.

A continuous positive airway pressure device (CPAP) is used to treat people with sleep apnea. A CPAP is a device that uses a mask, tubes and fan to push the tongue away from the back of the throat and allows proper air flow. It will halt all occurrences of apnea and greatly reduce snoring. An individual with a CPAP device should wear it whenever they sleep, even for short naps. While a CPAP does not cure sleep apnea it will drastically improve your sleep problems.