Snoring

Cosmetic Dentistry Directory

hy is it that some people snore and others do not? If you are a habitual snorer, you may or may not know it. Your sleeping partner, if any, almost certainly knows it however, as their sleep would be routinely disturbed.

Snoring is the sound of soft tissue vibrating. When you sleep and your throat and tongue relax, that soft tissue may slump against the airway and as air passes through, it vibrates the soft tissue. Soft tissue is any body tissue other than bones or teeth, which are hard tissue.

Causes of Snoring

Everyone has the potential to snore, as the soft tissues are there, the airway, and the relaxation of sleep. And probably everyone does snore once in a while. But several factors can cause one person to snore habitually and not another.

• Sleeping on your back – this position, called the supine position, places the full weight of soft tissue against the airway. If you sleep on your side you may be less likely to snore, as the tissue falls sideways.
• Being overweight – if you have excess fat around the throat and coating the structures near the back of the mouth, this creates extra weight against the airway and typically blocks it more.
• Poor muscle tone in tongue and throat – a sleeping pill or too much alcohol can relax the muscles too much in sleep, making them heavier on the airway than they normally are. Sometimes we just have very deep sleep regardless of pills or drinks and it can have the same effect.
• Long uvula – the uvula is the dangling piece at the back of the throat. If it is longer than average, or if the soft palate is long, it can narrow the opening between the nose and the throat, and again the airway can be obstructed.

Potential Dangers of a Snoring Habit

Although many people tolerate snoring in themselves or their family, it can actually pose serious health risks. Habitual snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, which puts the whole body at risk because of reduced oxygen. In sleep apnea, the airway gets blocked entirely and you stop breathing. When the body desperately needs more oxygen, you wake up enough to gasp and gulp for air and then fall back asleep. This cycle repeats perhaps hundreds of times through each night. You can image the daytime symptoms from that lack of good sleep and stoppage of oxygen flow into the body tissues.

Please see our page on Sleep Apnea for more details.

Not all snorers suffer from sleep apnea. But many do, and if you know that you habitually snore, it would be in your interests to have yourself checked for sleep apnea. Most sleep apnea sufferers do not know they have sleep apnea.

• The drifting attention point that you ascribe to lack of proper discipline might be due to lack of sleep, without you knowing it.
• The daily fatigue you trace to too long a commute or too many marital arguments might be caused by lack of oxygen to the brain every night.

Snoring Treatments

There is no need, these days, to accept snoring as a fact of life. There are effective treatments, different for different individual situations.

1. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure)
   This is the default treatment and it consists of a vacuum pump at the bedside connected by a breathing tube to a mask worn during sleep. The pump’s air pressure is adjusted for each person to be just strong enough to keep the airway open.

   However, about 75 percent of people who start on CPAP abandon it at some point. The pump is noisy, the mask is uncomfortable, and the tube limits your movement during sleep.

2. Customized Appliances
   A more effective approach, and one that is offered by many general, cosmetic, and neuromuscular dentists, is a comfortable appliance worn while you sleep. They are officially called Mandibular Advancement Splints (MAS) and look like sports mouthguards. You cannot buy them over the counter, but must see a dentist or physician and have one made for you.

   Each one is customized to fit snugly over your upper and lower teeth and hold either your jaw or your tongue slightly forward. This prevents throat tissue from collapsing back against the airway.

   There are many to choose from, each designed slightly differently. Some allow you to drink water during the night while wearing them; some allow you to talk. There are different ways of connecting the upper and lower arches.

3. Surgery
   There are a number of surgeries to modify the throat or nasal tissues and you can read about them on our Sleep Apnea page.

Please contact us if you would like to find a qualified dentist in your area.