Many of your patients may not get how severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is when left untreated. If their at-home sleep study indicates mild sleep apnea, they may not see the need for immediate treatment, and some people are likely to put off sleep apnea treatment indefinitely.

In recent articles, we’ve discussed how to explain why dentists are treating Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and we’ve given some guidance regarding explaining what to expect with a home sleep study. Let’s now look at some of the most frequently asked questions about sleep apnea you’re likely to get asked during a new patient appointment.

Understanding the symptoms and available tests is crucial if you suspect you have Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) or have been recently diagnosed. The terrible sleep, the waking up feeling tired, the daytime fatigue, the sore throat in the mornings, headaches, and the lack of concentration and memory.

If you're a dentist who treats sleep apnea, you've probably heard this question more than once. Many of your patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea will likely have been to medical doctors for treatment. Some may already be using CPAP and cannot tolerate it. Others will have been to other dentists who did not have the education and training to treat this complex but prevalent breathing-related sleep disorder.

It’s important that all medical doctors, dentists, and other healthcare professionals empathize with their patients. You must understand, or at least appreciate, what your patients are experiencing and feeling in order to relate to them and understand their concerns. While clinical skills make a good doctor or dentist, understanding the patient’s experience makes great doctors and dentists. Here, you will learn what your patients experienced with their home sleep test in hopes that you’ll gain a better understanding of what they went through to arrive at your office for Obstructive Sleep Apnea treatment. 

You often hear jokes couples make about the other one snoring, but snoring is actually an indication that something is physically amiss with your partner. While we like to tease loved ones about their loud snoring keeping the whole house awake, snoring usually indicates some type of breathing-related sleep disorder that may need medical attention.

Medical professionals have always been tasked with explaining conditions and treatments in terms their patients can understand. With so many online medical resources, people often research conditions and treatments to better understand what their doctors and dentists say. If you’re a sleep dentist wondering how to explain the obstructive sleep apnea/dentist connection to your patients, we have some ideas that may help you.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), like many other diseases and medical conditions, manifests differently in men and women. While this type of sleep apnea is the most common sleep disorder in the world, it does look different in women than men. Also, while men are more likely to develop OSA, many women have it but go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed for many years because of various factors that will be explored here.

Millions of people struggle with sleep for a number of different reasons. There may be physical reasons for poor sleep, emotional reasons for inconsistent sleep, or some combination of physical and mental struggles that cause sleep to be elusive. 

If you are tired of poor sleep, daytime fogginess, constant fatigue, and stress from never feeling well rested, it may be time to explore the possibility that you suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Millions of people have OSA, and many of those people suffer the adverse health effects of OSA for years (even decades) before getting a proper diagnosis and treatment for this serious sleep disorder.