The Scary Sounds of Snoring in Bend

Forget about Halloween — any night of the year can be scary when you’re sleeping next to someone who snores. Ask your dentist in Bend; we’ve heard the “snore-rror stories.”

Snoring is one of the most significant indicators of something called sleep apnea. 

What You Need to Know About Sleep Apnea

There are different partners of snoring that are commonly identified as a sign of a condition called obstructive sleep apnea. How it works is your airway collapses in on itself and closes up. The air won’t pass through when you’re trying to sleep and breathe in. That’s apnea. 

For a good demonstration and explanation of what sleep apnea sounds like, watch and listen to this YouTube video. 

How Your Bend Dentist Treats Sleep Apnea

Dr. Benjamin De Graff will get to know you a bit before talking about what symptoms you’ve been experiencing. Here’s what comes next:

• We will manually and visually evaluate your head, neck, mouth, and jaw structure, looking for imbalance or irregularities. We may also use our Cone Beam scanner to look at your anatomy and see what may lead to your obstruction.
• To keep things super convenient, we offer take-home sleep studies. That means you can be measured for sleep disturbances such as sleep apnea at home, in your own bed, where measurements will be most accurate. You will not be billed for this service. Instead, we bill your medical insurance.
• Once your sleep study results are entered into the system, a board-certified sleep physician will evaluate the results and confirm or deny the presence of sleep apnea.
• If your sleep apnea is severe, we will refer you to a sleep center or to your primary care physician for the prescription of a CPAP.
• If your sleep apnea is mild to moderate, or if you know you cannot tolerate a CPAP device, we can prescribe a custom-made mandibular advancement appliance to hold your jaw in the ideal position and allow you to breathe correctly throughout the night.

Contact us or schedule online to take advantage of a consultation where you can have some time to share with us what’s been going on with your sleeping and snoring. We’re here to help! Don’t be afraid to reach out.