EXPERT REVIEW | health & wellness ||
23
BEAT SNORING
AND SLEEP APNEA
M
Expert:
MARGARITA
DEGTYAREVA, DDS,
F.I.C.O.I.
Top Doctors Awards
Member of American
Dental Association
Fellow of the Int’l
Congress of Oral
Implantologists
Owner of Always
Beautiful Smile,
New York
alwaysbeautifulsmile.com
ost people know from their own experience how annoying snoring
can be. Anyone who shares a bed with a snorer suffers from
sleeplessness. The one who snores suffers from a sense of guilt
for the other’s suffering. But the most terrible thing is that snoring
can be a sign of a serious disorder—sleep apnea, which carries
the threat of heart attack, stroke, and even complete cessation of breathing
while you are asleep.
Timely treatment for snoring can significantly improve quality of life and
even add fifteen years or so. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine em-
phatically urges everyone with a confirmed or even only presumptive diag-
nosis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (and there are about eighteen million
such people in our country) to go to a dentist. Up until recently, sleep apnea
was treated only with a CPAP machine, but new technologies have since ap-
peared. Now you don’t have to sleep in a mask; you can use a sleep appli-
ance. Leading dentists who have gone through special training in solving
problems of difficult breathing can develop an oral appliance that you must
put in before going to bed, individually suited to you in particular on the basis
of your medical history (concretely, what problems are bothering you plus
your current oral and dental health) and medical evaluations (digital photo-
graphs providing a picture of the anatomical structure of the mouth, throat,
and tongue position plus exact molds of the upper and lower jaws). Because
the device is light in weight, flexible, has no noticeable taste, and seats ideally
on the teeth, it absolutely does not in any way cause interference or obstruc-
tion in the mouth—more precisely, it simply