Sleep apnea is a condition wherein a person unknowingly stops breathing while asleep, only to start breathing again a few seconds later. Frequent incidents of sleep apnea can lower the quality of sleep and typically results in excessive daytime sleepiness. Obstructions within the throat, mouth, or nose, can cause sleep apnea, but such obstructions are not always discovered by a physician’s standard visual evaluation. At this point, a physician may refer their patient to a sleep specialist or an ear, nose, and throat doctor for further evaluation.
A sleep specialist may perform an overnight examination of the patient known as polysomnography, whereby a patient is connected to monitoring equipment while they sleep in the controlled environment of a sleep center. At-home polysomnography equipment also exists for full-night sleep studies that do not require any sort of special intervention, such as in the case of a split-sleep study where they wake the patient and connect them to a positive pressure breathing apparatus.
Read testimonials of some of our valued clients who have taken our dental sleep apnea courses.