Often there are dental conditions that may indicate a patient is dealing with sleep apnea. If you are evaluated by a dentist that is experienced in Dental Sleep medicine, these conditions will signal for further testing.
Dental sleep medicine is an area of dental practice that focuses on the use of oral appliance therapy to treat sleep-disordered breathing, including snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.
Dental conditions that might indicate Sleep Apnea from a dentist with experience in Dental Sleep medicine:
- Clenching or grinding the teeth at night that comes on without other reasons such as TMJ
- TMJ injury, or a jaw joint that locks, clicks or pops and is hard to open in recent months accompanied by poor sleep more frequently
- Using the bathroom 2 or more times per night without other medical reasons
- Requiring a 2nd medication for high blood pressure in younger men (or women)
- Insulin problems
- Weight gain, craving for carbohydrates
- Neck pain in the morning
- Headaches or jaw pain in the morning
- Not being able to wear a night guard; spit it out, clench harder when wearing it, or just can’t sleep with it in your mouth
- Sensitive gag reflex for dental work
These are some of the symptoms that you may experience if you are living with sleep apnea. You may want to check out our other blog post on sleep apnea symptoms , subscribe to our blog or schedule an appointment for evaluation.
