How Dental Professionals Can Identify Signs of Sleep Apnea

Your oral health helps dental professionals identify various other problems with your health. Many signs can detect certain conditions, such as sleep apnea. Sleep is the most essential part of your daily routine, allowing your body to relax and recharge. Without effective sleep, poor sleeping habits, including teeth grinding, might cause poor oral health.

With effective detection and tips to resolve sleep apnea, you can improve your overall health. This article will help you learn signs to identify sleep apnea for early treatment. You can also explore the benefits of early detection of sleep apnea and other related conditions.

Signs To Identify Sleep Apnea

People with loud snoring, daytime sleepiness, and many other symptoms feel they might have some serious disorder. This is an essential opportunity to visit your dentist to look for signs of sleep apnea. If you have difficulty breathing, concentrating, or high blood pressure, you should stay cautious to detect and resolve these conditions early.

You should visit a dentist who is trained to diagnose sleep apnea and its signs. They might also take X-rays of your mouth and neck to identify any enlarged tissues causing the blockage. With an examination, your dentist will determine the right treatment method. Let us look at some of the signs your dentist can detect, such as sleep apnea, based on your oral condition.

Breathing Irregularities
Most people do not realize they have sleep apnea, and most of their partners report breathing issues. The loud snoring is caused by obstructive breathing in the airway. It can be due to a large tissue blocking your airway.

You must look for such signs and ask your partner before consulting a dentist. These episodes of loud snoring might happen a few times a night with a small interval of a few minutes. You might struggle to breathe properly while sleeping and gasp for air many times at night if you do not resolve this issue on time.

More Cavities
Sleep apnea not only affects your breathing but also your oral health. You might observe an increased number of cavities and bacteria formation in your mouth. Your dentist can help you identify why you have more tooth decay than before despite having great oral hygiene. With decreased saliva production, you might experience dry mouth, bad breath, and more cavities, resulting in sleep apnea.

Gum Recession
Sleep apnea patients usually have dry mouth as a common sign. Due to breathing problems and dryness in your mouth, you can also experience gum recession. You can also consult your dentist to understand which signs of sleep apnea or other conditions can cause your gums to recede.

Scalloped Tongue
One of the most common symptoms of sleep apnea is a scalloped tongue. If you have unconsciously pressed your tongue in your sleep, you might open your airway. You might observe uneven ridges, notched and waved sides around your tongue surface and its perimeter.

Worn Tooth Surfaces
Obstructive sleep apnea is challenging as it can affect your sleep and result in stress and tension in your jaw. You can also experience teeth-grinding that might cause worn-out tooth surfaces. Over time, you might observe your teeth wear down, making them more likely to break, decay, and damage.

Bad Breath
Bad breath is the usual sign of poor oral hygiene. But there are many other conditions that can result in bad breath as a sign. A dry mouth often results in mouth breathing while we sleep. This will also result in bad breath. Usually, the saliva-production mouth helps you avoid bacteria formation, however, once saliva flow is lesser, the bacteria stays in the mouth for longer and results in a foul smell.

Throat Inflammation
Dentists often look for signs of throat inflammation to detect sleep apnea. They can detect early signs of sleep apnea with chronic obstructive inflammation of the throat and palate. Your dentist also looks for other related oral signs, such as redness, swelling, and ulcers in your mouth.

Conclusion

Sleep apnea not only makes your teeth more likely to decay, cause cavities, and wear out but also obstructs breathing, making you grasp for air in between sleep. To make your sleep routine more relaxing and prevent yourself from various issues associated with sleep apnea, consult your dentist.

If you observe signs of sleep apnea or have difficulty breathing while you sleep, you should look for a dentist to identify these conditions in depth. You can improve your sleep cycle and maintain a healthy mouth with an effective diagnosis. You can consult our experts at Crosby Dentist, TX, to explore prevention tips for sleep apnea. You will learn treatments and effective tips to resolve such conditions and identify your conditions.