Sleep apnea mouth guards, do they help?
Let’s be real. Waking up feeling exhausted day after day royally sucks.
You drag yourself out of bed, body screaming for more sleep. Just keeping your eyes open takes Herculean effort.
Let’s learn how the right mouth guard can totally transform your sleep and restore your zest for life.
Why Quality Sleep Matter?
Sleep allows your body and mind to recharge. It’s as vital for your health as eating nutrient-rich foods and staying active.
Without enough quality shut-eye over time, you’re at higher risk for all kinds of unhealthy stuff. Like heart disease, diabetes, excess weight, stroke, and even cancer.
Your immune system suffers too, leaving you prone to getting sick. And we’ve all experienced how lack of sleep impairs memory, focus, mood, and reaction time. No bueno.
But you don’t need me to tell you this, right? You already know from experience how the effects of poor sleep seep into every nook and cranny of your life.
The good news? A uniquely designed sleep apnea mouth guard could be the simple solution you need for restful nights and refreshed days.
What’s Causing Your Restless, Interrupted Sleep?
Lots of factors can mess with getting good sleep. Stress, noise, hormones, room temperature, and even insomnia play a role for many people.
But one of the biggest sleep saboteurs is a common disorder called sleep apnea. Ever heard of it?
With sleep apnea symptoms, your breathing stops briefly while you’re sleeping, but you may not even realize it’s happening.
These breathing pauses occur when the soft tissues in your throat collapse and block your airway. It interrupts your sleep cycle so you can take those breaths.
While these stoppages only last seconds, they prevent you from reaching the deeper, restorative stages of sleep your body and brain need to recharge.
The result? Tossing and turning all night without truly restorative rest.
How a Sleep Apnea Mouth Guard Can Change Everything
A sleep apnea mouth guard keeps your airway open at night, preventing tissues in your throat from collapsing.
This allows you to breathe freely all night long. No more pauses in breathing means you progress through all the stages of sleep as you should.
Can you even imagine what it would be like to wake up actually feeling refreshed and restored?
With restorative sleep, your mind is sharp, focus laser-like. You’ve got the energy to take on your day with gusto.
Consistent good sleep also helps your immune system work its best to keep you healthy. It reduces your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Even your appearance stands to benefit from plumper, glowing skin and brighter eyes after rest-filled nights.
A sleep apnea mouth guard, also known as a sleep apnea oral appliance, delivers all this simply by ensuring you get quality shut-eye. But finding the right one tailored to your needs is key.
Is Sleep Apnea Mouth Guard Better Than a CPAP Machine?
Sleep doctors often prescribe CPAP as the first treatment for sleep apnea. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.
It works by pumping pressurized air through a face mask you wear at night to keep your airway open.
CPAP is effective, but many people have a hard time with it. The mask and straps feel cumbersome and uncomfortable. It can fall off while you sleep, disrupting your rest.
Other downsides are stuffy nose, dry mouth, irritation from the straps, and feeling closed in. CPAP also costs thousands even after insurance.
For many people, a sleep apnea mouth guard is a much better first option. It treats the root cause just as well but with better comfort and consistency in use. Learn more about CPAP vs oral appliances here.
Not All Mouth Guards Are Created Equal – Find the Best Fit
Sleep apnea mouth guards come in a few different varieties:
- Over-the-counter guards – These boil-and-bite guards allow you to mold the plastic at home. But DIY molding risks an imperfect fit unable to keep your airway open. OTC guards also move around while you sleep. For most people, they don’t prevent apnea well.
- Custom-made guard from an imprint – More accurate than OTC, these are molded from a mold of your teeth. But without pro adjustments, they may still allow some airway collapse.
- Custom-made and professionally titrated guard – The gold standard. An experienced sleep dentist takes detailed molds and fine-tunes the fit. This precision guard stays put all night to maintain an open airway.
- The Vivos Sleep Apnea Mouth Guard – The Vivos device revolutionizes sleep apnea treatment with a non-invasive, custom solution that prevents airway blockages more comfortably than CPAP machines.
See why a custom-made, professionally fitted sleep apnea mouth guard offers the most reliable apnea relief.
How Do Sleep Apnea Mouth Guards Work?
A custom sleep apnea mouth guard holds your lower jaw a little forward while you sleep. This keeps the soft tissues in your throat from caving in and blocking airflow.
Normally when you sleep, throat muscles relax in a way that narrows your air passage. But the mouth guard provides just enough forward tension to prevent this.
It may slightly extend your lower jaw forward of your upper jaw. Or it simply stops your jaw from sliding backward to open your airway.
This clears your air passage so you can breathe freely all night long without obstruction.
The mouth guard fits securely around your upper and lower teeth to stay put while you sleep. High-quality guards are slim and comfortable in your mouth.
Act Now!
At Dr. Azuma’s office, we know you want to feel refreshed and restored when you wake up in the mornings.
But the exhaustion and brain fog caused by poor sleep makes it tough to be your best self. Sleep apnea disrupts your rest, which leaves you dragging through your days.
That’s why our sleep medicine experts, like Dr. Azuma, are dedicated to helping you resolve sleep apnea for good. We dig deep to understand your unique sleep struggles and craft tailored solutions.
Here’s how we’ll help renew your sleep and revitalize your days:
- First, we’ll screen you for sleep apnea with an at-home sleep test for your convenience.
- If you have sleep apnea, Dr. Azuma will design a comfortable, custom-fit mouth guard to keep your airway open.
- Follow-up visits ensure the mouth guard keeps you sleeping soundly long-term.
Our goal is to help you feel recharged when you open your eyes each morning. So you can stop struggling with exhaustion and brain fog and instead reclaim the energy to pursue what matters most.
For now, contact our office to schedule a simple apnea screening. Then, you can be on your way to sleeping deeply and living fully!
