Want to stop snoring? The Beacon Dental Clinic can help

With around 40% of adult men and 24% of adult women suffering from snoring, it’s generally considered a bigger problem than many realise. While there’s the obvious problem of disturbing partners and loved ones from their sleep, there are also some serious health impacts to the person snoring.

Occasionally, snoring is entirely normal and besides disturbing those around you, it’s entirely harmless. However, if it happens night after night, it’s worth getting it checked, as it could be a symptom of a bigger problem and lead to further health risks, such as sleep apnoea, higher blood pressure, heart problems and more. 

WHAT CAUSES SNORING?

Snoring is caused by some sort of obstruction to your breathing while you’re asleep, although the obstruction itself can be difficult to pin down. It could be something as simple as the position you’re sleeping in, the result of drinking too much alcohol, or a physical problem such as the uvula (the dangling bit at the back of your mouth) blocking the airway.

The most common causes of snoring are the following:

• A relaxed tongue or throat, leading to a full or partial airway blockage
• Obstructed sinuses due to allergies or illness such as a cold or flu
• Being overweight, resulting in tissue build up around the airways
• Alcohol or overtiredness causing muscles around the airways to over-relax

While these are the most common, they are by no means the full story, so there may be some other reason for your snoring. Due to the number of possible causes, it’s worth visiting a dentist such as Dr. Edward Owens of the Beacon Dental Clinic based in Sandyford, Dublin who’ll be able to help stop your snoring.

Generally speaking, no. If it’s only an occasional thing, or a one-off, it’s not worth worrying about. However, snoring is a major symptom of sleep apnoea, which can be hazardous to your health.

Sleep apnoea prevents your body from getting the oxygen it needs when you’re asleep. This impacts the sleeping cycle, your blood, heart and brain functionality. While rarely fatal, sleep apnoea impacts your daily life as you’ll feel more tired, wake up with headaches and generally feel run down, with no visible cause.

While there are plenty of over-the-counter fixes to snoring, the results can be extremely inconsistent from person to person, as the root cause of your snoring in particular will be individual to you.

A dental care visit can help you identify what’s causing the problem and what sort of snoring treatment would be best to use; whether it’s over the counter treatments, a shift in sleeping positions using specialised pillows, or a change to your lifestyle. Generally, once the problem is identified, finding a way to stop your snoring is relatively easy.

HOW CAN A DENTAL VISIT HELP WITH MY SNORING?

Dental Sleep Medicine is an area of clinical expertise which focuses on the management of sleep related breathing disorders, including snoring, noisy disturbed sleep, sleep apnoea, CPAP intolerance and sleep bruxism (teeth grinding), with the design and fitting of customised oral / dental appliances. 

Click here to download the Beacon Dental Sleep Patient Brochure

An oral appliance is a device worn in the mouth only during sleep. The device fits similar to a sports mouth guard or orthodontic retainer and prevents the airway from collapsing by either supporting the tongue or jaw in a forward position, thereby opening the airway.

With a custom fitted oral appliance, we can help minimise or eliminate the symptoms of Sleep Disordered Breathing. Sleep apnoea (in mild to moderate cases) including loud snoring, gasping and unpleasant noises.

The device can also act as an alternative treatment for patients (on medical advice only) who have been prescribed CPAP by their medical consultant, finding it difficult to adhere to this therapy for management of their sleep apnoea condition.

Oral appliances hold the lower jaw in a forward position, dilates the upper airway and preventing it from collapsing. This helps to:

• eliminate or reduce snoring noise levels
• improve sleep quality and general energy levels on wakening
• treat sleep apnoea disease progression
• improves bed partners sleep quality of life.

The Beacon Dental Clinic provide the following additional services

• Referral from consultant led medical diagnosis of sleep disordered breathing, noisy loud snoring and suspected sleep apnoea.
• CBT referral or medical advice for sleep disorder management.
• Dietician and weight management referral if indicated.
• Dental health care education.
• Dental Hygienist service and dental health care education
• Advanced restorative prosthodontic care
• Routine in office dental healthcare