Dental Services
Snoring: Face Value Dental is located in the Brisbane CBD and provides pain free dental treatment options.
Snoring
Stop Snoring For a Safer Healthier Sleep
40% of adult man and 30% of women snore, this percentage increases with age. Snoring may be an indicator of a serious underlying condition known as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA).
Consider going to your dentist if your are suffering from the following symptoms:
- Loud and repetitive snoring — OSA suffers often follow a pattern of loud snoring followed by episodes of silence, and then gasps for breath.
- Excessive daytime sleepiness — most people with OSA have difficulty staying awake during the day, regardless of how much sleep they have. This can occur while at work, watching TV, driving the car, or even sitting behind your desk at work.
- Erratic mood shifts — people with OSA are more susceptible to depression and increased irritability.
- Morning headaches.
- Intellectual deterioration,i.e- poor memory
- Restless sleep.
- Bedwetting/passing urine at night.
- Breathlessness at night or day.
- Reduced sexual activity.
- Heart burn at night.
In association with Sleep Studies Australia, Face Value Dental can offer a comfortable
and convenient way to monitor your sleeping patterns. We also offer the luxury of
choice – you can select the time and place of your sleep study to fit in with your
lifestyle and schedule, all without waiting lists!
Interesting in Learning More?
Are your dreaming of good nights sleep? Well Dr. Malcolm Duff can help! Call us today to arrange your consultation with Dr.Duff to see if you are a suitable candidate for a Home Sleep Study.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is sleep apnoea.
Apnoea means ‘the absence of breath.’ Sleep apnoea occurs when the airway from the mouth to the lung collapses during sleep. The person with sleep apnoea may have hundreds of these episodes throughout the night, disrupting their sleep and reducing oxygen supply to vital organs. Sleep apnea is a common condition affecting about 5% of adults. Fortunately effective treatment is available and once treated the person with sleep apnoea leads a normal healthy life.
What causes sleep apnea?
There are two types of apnoea -obstructive apnea and central apnoea.
Obstructive apnoea is the result of obstruction of the airway leading from the nose or mouth to the lungs. The obstruction is usually the result of a narrowed airway which becomes partly or completely blocked when the muscles around the airway relax during sleep.
Central apnoea is uncommon and results when the signals from the brain to regulate breathing are disrupted in some way.
Who gets sleep apnoea?
Sleep apnoea can occur at any age. In childhood apnoea it is commonly the result of enlarged tonsils or adenoids or of some cranio-facial abnormality. In adulthood, apnoea becomes more common in middle age and is more common in men than in women, although after menopause women may be at increased risk. Sleep apnoea is often associated with being overweight, particularly with excess fatty tissue around the neck. In people who are not overweight, it is likely that they have been born with a narrow airway or facial structure which leads to a narrow airway. Almost everyone who has obstructive sleep apnoea snores as snoring is also the result of narrow or floppy upper airways.
How is sleep apnoea diagnosed?
Signs and symptoms such as snoring, obesity, observed apnoea and sleepiness in the day may suggest that a person has sleep apnoea but the best way to be really sure is with an overnight sleep study. In the sleep study the patient is wired up and attached to computers which measure their sleep, their breathing and oxygen levels. Everyone experiences a small amount of disruption to breathing during sleep but someone with sleep apnoea may have as many as one hundred of these events per hour.
How is sleep apnoea treated?
With the help of a Mandibular Advancement Splint (MAS) treatment is painless and non invasive. The SomnoDent® MAS device, allows for full range of mouth opening and closing, which means you can talk or drink with the device in position and close your lips. It does not impinge on tongue space and will fit wholly inside your mouth, making the SomnoDent® MAS more comfortable and discreet than other MAS products.
In order to increase both the efficiency and comfort of the device, the SomnoDent® MAS is fully incrementally adjustable, forward and backward. Allowing it to be adjusted to the optimum position for comfort and effective treatment. Most patients generally find that it only takes a couple of nights to adjust to wearing the device for a good nights sleep.
Things to avoid if you have sleep apnoea.
There are some things that make apnoea worse and therefore should be avoided. Alcohol tends to relax muscles and may worsen apnoea as may sleeping tablets which depress the drive to breathe. It is advisable to try and maintain a regular sleeping pattern. Other things that disrupt sleep such as caffeine and eating late at night should also be avoided.
How successful is the treatment ?
The use of the Mandibular Advancement Splint has proven to be a very effective treatment method for sleep apnoea. The MAS has shown to be twice as effective with the treatment of sleep apnoea then it’s alternate; A Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device (CPAP). Although in same cases CPAP may be a more appropriate method of treatment for you.
Snoring: Face Value Dental is located in the Brisbane CBD and provides pain free dental treatment options.
