What are the benefits of oral appliance therapy in sleep apnea treatment?

How do you sleep at night? Are you among the lucky few who can fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow? Or does it take a couple of duvet tosses and pillow punches to get you in the “right” position? Whichever category you fall under, how you feel the next day depends more on the quality and not the quantity of sleep you get. If you intermittently stop breathing for short periods during sleep, your sleeping pattern becomes fragmented and you’ll end up feeling tired even after eight hours or more of sleep. But when you sleep with a custom-fitted oral appliance for sleep apnea, you can expect to experience a multitude of benefits.

Better Sleep

One of the first things you’ll notice when you start using oral appliances to treat sleep apnea is how much more comfortable sleeping becomes. Instead of your breathing stopping and starting throughout the night, you’ll be able to steadily and properly inhale and exhale again. This not only prevents snoring, but it also helps maintain proper oxygen levels in the brain. With oral appliance therapy, you also won’t have to deal with a noisy machine, hoses, or an uncomfortable face mask. All you’ll have to do is put the custom-fit oral device made from lightweight materials in your mouth, and you’ll be good to go.

Feel More Rested

Sleep apnea sufferers often unknowingly wake up hundreds of times throughout the night. Because of this, they usually wake up tired and feel the effects of interrupted sleep throughout their day. In fact, patients with untreated sleep apnea are nearly 2.5 times more likely to cause a motor vehicle accident.

For most people, the airway obstruction that causes sleep apnea and snoring is the result of the tongue and soft tissues at the back of the mouth collapsing. With oral appliance therapy, these obstructions won’t occur. The oral device repositions your tongue forward, creating more space for air to move freely and allowing you to sleep without waking up repeatedly throughout the night.

Mood Boost

Few things can put a damper on your mood in the morning like restless sleep or the inability to breathe comfortably at night. Persistent snoring and pauses in breathing also put you at a greater risk of depression, according to a study published in the journal Sleep. The easiest and fastest way to remedy the effects a lack of sleep can have on your mood is to improve your sleep. 

Using a dentist-prescribed mouth guard can help in this department. Wearing the oral appliance at night ensures your airway stays open and, therefore, allows you to sleep without interruptions. Once you start having a good night’s sleep, any mood-related symptoms you may have experienced will slowly melt away. 

Improved Focus and Memory

Another benefit of treating airway obstructions with oral appliance therapy is improvements with your memory and focus. Just think about it. Anytime you have a big presentation at work or are sitting for a life/career-changing exam, what’s the one thing everyone says to do the day before? Get a good night’s sleep! You may not have understood the science behind it, but the benefits speak for themselves. With a good night’s sleep, thanks to oral appliance therapy, sleep apnea patients can enjoy improved mental clarity and better focus. This can help improve your performance at work so you can finally get that promotion you’ve always wanted. 

More Energy

Not all sleep can restore your energy levels. For that, you need at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep to get the deeper level of rest your brain and body need to boost your metabolism. With the constant breathing interruptions sleep apnea patients face throughout the night, achieving that kind of restful sleep is nearly impossible. That’s where oral appliance therapy comes in. By treating your obstruction with oral devices and improving your quality of sleep, your body will get the quality rest it needs to maintain healthy energy levels the next day.

Correct Underlying Problems

Ever wonder why you frequently wake up with a dry mouth and/or experience headaches? When people don’t breathe well during sleep, they tend to either snore loudly or breathe out of their mouth, which can dry out saliva. People with obstructive sleep apnea also experience an increase in muscle activity at night, particularly in the jaw area. 

This can lead to jaw clenching and teeth grinding during sleep, and the tension created may spread out into the head and neck areas, developing into a headache. Wearing an oral appliance at night improves the mechanics of your breathing and acts as a buffer between your upper and lower jaw, preventing your teeth from grinding against each other.

Utilize oral appliance therapy for a good night’s sleep.

A good night’s sleep isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. It can boost your mood, improve your focus and memory, give you more energy, and so much more. Talk with a dentist in Omaha about getting an oral appliance to combat the effects of sleep apnea so you can take the first step toward achieving a good night’s sleep.