If you think that you have sleep apnea, the very first thing you should do is contact a medical professional like Dr. Wendy Willoughby, DDS. She is going to be interested in learning about your sleep record and will want to know about the fatigue you have been dealing with throughout the day. She is going to ask a number of questions to see what symptoms you have that lead you to believe you have sleep apnea.
A good way to know if you have sleep apnea is to talk to your sleep partner. If they notice that you snore a lot, you choke or gasp during sleep, or that you stop breathing altogether, these are good indications that you are dealing with sleep apnea. In determining whether or not you have the condition, our dental professional is going to be interested in learning about the medications you are currently taking. These include prescription medications as well as over-the-counter medications.
One of the most common ways to determine whether or not a person has the condition is to do a sleep study. Other options include using dental appliances that change the position of the jaw and tongue in a way that opens up the airways.
Lifestyle changes are also an important way of addressing some of the symptoms associated with sleep apnea. For example, if a person is overweight, the best thing they can do to cure their sleep apnea is to lose weight. Being overweight affects your body’s ability to draw in oxygen, it affects your blood pressure, it affects the way your heart beats, and it affects your ability to sleep comfortably.
Our dental professional may ask you to change the position that you sleep in. Some people who have a mild form of sleep apnea have less breathing problems if they lay on their side as opposed to their back. These are just a few of the options that are available to help a person who is battling with sleep apnea.
During a consultation at the office of Dr. Wendy Willoughby, DDS in Asheville, you can get all the facts about how we treat sleep apnea using oral appliance therapy. Contact us today to book an appointment.
