What Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is a sleep-related breathing disorder in which the upper airway repeatedly narrows or closes during sleep. These interruptions can reduce airflow and repeatedly disrupt normal sleep. Your body may briefly wake just enough to restore breathing, even if you do not remember waking. When that happens repeatedly throughout the night, it can be difficult to get the deep, restorative sleep you need to feel refreshed the next day. Healthy Sleep Tulsa focuses its dental sleep care on obstructive sleep apnea. Other forms of sleep apnea have different causes and require medical evaluation and management.
Common Signs
of Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea does not look the same for everyone. In fact, many people do not realize their breathing changes during sleep until a spouse, partner, or family member notices it.
Possible warning signs include:
- Frequent or loud snoring
- Pauses in breathing noticed by another person
- Gasping or choking during sleep
- Waking with a dry mouth
- Morning headaches
- Daytime fatigue or sleepiness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling unrefreshed after sleeping
- Waking frequently during the night
- Irritability or changes in mood
Snoring alone does not prove that someone has sleep apnea. However, frequent snoring combined with other symptoms is a good reason to discuss your sleep with a healthcare provider.
You can also take our sleep apnea quiz if you are beginning to wonder whether your symptoms deserve a closer look.
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Who Is at Risk for
Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea can affect people of different ages, body types, and backgrounds. Certain health, lifestyle, and anatomical factors can increase the likelihood of developing it.
Risk can be influenced by factors such as:
- Excess body weight
- Age
- Family history
- Certain jaw or airway structures
- Alcohol use, particularly near bedtime
- Smoking
- Sleeping on your back
- Some medical conditions
Having one or more risk factors does not mean you have sleep apnea. Likewise, someone without obvious risk factors can still develop it. Symptoms and appropriate sleep testing are more useful than diagnosing the condition based on appearance alone.
Why Treating
Sleep Apnea Matters
Poor sleep is only one part of the problem. Untreated sleep apnea can place repeated stress on the body and is associated with concerns involving cardiovascular health, alertness, memory, concentration, and overall well-being.
Daytime sleepiness can also make ordinary activities more difficult and may become dangerous when someone needs to stay alert while driving or working.
The purpose of treatment is not simply to stop snoring. It is to address disrupted breathing during sleep and support better-quality rest.
How Sleep Apnea
Is Diagnosed
A sleep study is needed to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea. The study records information about your breathing and other sleep-related measurements so an appropriate medical provider can determine whether sleep apnea is present and assess its severity.
Healthy Sleep Tulsa can help patients get set up for home sleep testing when appropriate. This allows many patients to complete testing in their own beds while the medical diagnosis remains under the care of an appropriate provider.
Our doctors do not diagnose sleep apnea based on a dental examination, airway scan, symptoms, or snoring alone. That information can help us understand your needs, but objective sleep testing is an essential part of the diagnosis.
Sleep Apnea Treatment Options in Tulsa
Treatment depends on the type and severity of sleep apnea, your health, and other individual factors. Positive airway pressure therapy, including CPAP, remains an important treatment option for many patients.
For appropriate adults with obstructive sleep apnea who cannot tolerate CPAP or prefer another option, a custom oral appliance may be recommended.
Oral Appliance Therapy
A custom oral appliance is worn while you sleep and is designed to support an open airway by changing the position of the lower jaw. It is compact, does not require a mask or hose, and can be a practical option for qualifying patients.
At Healthy Sleep Tulsa, oral appliance therapy includes careful fitting, adjustment, follow-up, and objective testing rather than simply delivering an appliance and considering treatment complete.
Combined CPAP and
Oral Appliance Therapy
Some patients benefit from using CPAP and an oral appliance together. Adjusting the jaw position may help make positive airway pressure treatment more manageable for certain patients.
Our team can provide combined therapy in coordination with the patient’s medical sleep provider when appropriate.
Benefits Of
Choosing Healthy Sleep Tulsa
Oral appliance therapy requires more than taking an impression and ordering a device. Proper care involves understanding sleep diagnoses, evaluating dental and airway considerations, selecting an appropriate appliance, adjusting it, monitoring side effects, and confirming that treatment is working. Healthy Sleep Tulsa is dedicated to sleep and airway care rather than providing these services as an occasional addition to routine dentistry.
Dedicated Sleep and Airway Expertise
Our practice is built around three doctors focused on sleep and airway health, backed by more than 30 years of dental experience from Dr. Lori Hare and advanced training in dental sleep medicine.
Advanced Diagnostic Technology
We use CBCT imaging and airway measurements when appropriate, along with digital scanning to capture precise records for custom appliances.
Ongoing Follow-Up and Physician Communication
We provide continued in-office and telemedicine follow-up and communicate with referring primary care and sleep physicians so your full care team stays informed.
Coordinated Testing and Titration
We coordinate home sleep study testing, appliance adjustment and titration, and follow-up sleep studies to evaluate how well treatment is working.
We want patients to know not only what they are wearing at night, but how treatment fits into their overall sleep care.
Sleep Apnea Questions Patients Commonly Ask
Sleep Apnea Questions
Patients Commonly Ask
Understanding sleep apnea can make the path from symptoms to treatment feel much less confusing. These are some of the questions patients commonly have when they visit Healthy Sleep Tulsa.
Yes. Snoring is a common warning sign of obstructive sleep apnea, but not everyone with sleep apnea snores noticeably. Other signs can include gasping during sleep, daytime sleepiness, morning headaches, poor concentration, dry mouth, and waking without feeling refreshed. Because symptoms alone cannot confirm sleep apnea, a sleep study is necessary when a healthcare provider suspects a sleep-related breathing disorder.
No. Obstructive sleep apnea requires diagnosis through appropriate medical sleep testing. Healthy Sleep Tulsa can help coordinate a home sleep study when appropriate, but an appropriate medical provider reviews the testing and makes the diagnosis. Once you have a diagnosis and oral appliance therapy is recommended, our doctors can evaluate whether dental sleep treatment is appropriate for you.
For some adults with obstructive sleep apnea, a custom oral appliance can be an appropriate alternative when CPAP is not tolerated, or the patient prefers another treatment, and their medical provider recommends it. CPAP remains an important and effective treatment for sleep apnea. We work with each patient’s diagnosis and healthcare team, rather than assuming a single treatment is right for everyone.
We use follow-up sleep testing to help evaluate treatment effectiveness. Feeling better and snoring less can be positive signs, but they do not tell us everything happening during sleep. After fitting and adjusting your appliance, we coordinate titration testing and continue monitoring you through scheduled in-office and telemedicine follow-up visits.
For oral appliance therapy, experience with dental sleep care, appliance selection, adjustment, side-effect monitoring, physician communication, and follow-up testing can all matter. Healthy Sleep Tulsa focuses its practice on sleep and airway care. Our team regularly works with patients with sleep apnea and follows up on treatment beyond appliance delivery, including objective titration testing and communication with referring providers.