Obstructive Sleep Apnea  [ Return to  About Sleep Apnea  ]

For most patients this involves a sleep test (polysomnography).

Lifestyle changes, CPAP therapy, oral appliances and surgery can be used in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Lifestyle: There are a number of simple things that patients can do to reduce snoring and apnea. For some people lifestyle changes are enough to control the snoring and OSA. Lifestyle changes may not be attainable or may be inadequate; other forms of therapy are usually needed. Life style options include:

• Losing weight.
• Quitting smoking.
• Avoidance of alcohol or sedatives late in the evening.

CPAP ( Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ) Therapy: Nasal CPAP is the most effective treatment for OSA. [ click to learn more ]

Oral Appliances: These devices are custom made by dentists in consultation with your sleep specialist. By moving the jaw forward the tongue is repositioned to keep the airway open. The airway is also dilated by forces on other upper airway muscles.

Surgery: Surgical procedures are used to increase the size of the airway. Increasing the size of the airway will in most cases eliminate snoring. Sleep Apnea Syndrome may not be eliminated. Please consult your specialist for further information on surgical procedures.

Notice: All medical and therapeutic information and advice contained on this website is necessarily general in nature and may not be appropriate to your particular condition. Consequently, we caution all our readers that the information and advice contained on this website should be acted or relied upon only after consultation with your physician or health care professional.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) can affect people of any age, from newborns to elderly adults. Some predict that about 4% women and 9% of men have OSA. Although a sleep test is required to diagnose OSA there are many signs and symptoms that you can look for. While sleeping, snoring may be heard followed by a period of silence that is then broken by a loud snort or gasp. The person will usually breathe more heavily afterward. Some symptoms of OSA may include loud snoring, daytime sleepiness, and irregular or restless sleep.

There are two main consequences of OSA:

1. The first is excessive sleepiness during the day which can lead to decreased attention, affecting the ability to work, socialize, operate machinery or drive automobiles. Not treating OSA can be very harmful, not only to oneself, but to others as well. Driving while excessively sleepy can be as dangerous as drunk driving.
2. The second consequence has to do with the physical harm OSA has on the body. When oxygen levels in the blood drop to a certain level, the heart detects this and responds by beating more quickly to try and compensate. This stresses the heart and when it happens over and over again, it can cause long term damage. High blood pressure and heart problems have been strongly associated with OSA. There is also evidence that strokes and heart attacks can be associated with untreated OSA. OSA is a long-term condition and treatment will likely be required for as long as the condition exits.

The most common treatment for OSA is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy. It is effective in almost all cases. CPAP provides light air pressure to hold the airway open and, as a results, allows for uninterrupted sleep throughout the night. Normally the air is delivered through a small mask worn over the nose during sleep.

During normal sleep, the muscles which control the tongue and soft palate hold the upper airway open.
When these muscles relax, the airway becomes narrower, partially blocking off the air passage. For most people this causes no problem.
For some people, if the airway is narrow, breathing may cause the soft or floppy part of the throat to vibrate, producing the snoring sound.
If the throat is particularly narrow, or the muscles relax too much, the airway can become completely blocked, preventing breathing. When this happens repeatedly, the condition is called OSA.

After a period of time, which may be anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 or more minutes, the brain - realizing that there is a lack of oxygen - alerts the body to wake up.
This cycle can occur a few times to several hundred times during the night, producing significant sleep disruption in some people.