Board Certification
This has been a gratifying week for us at the office. I learned Tuesday that I had received my board certification for the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. This news is coupled with continual reports from patients experiencing a renewed quality of life as a result having their sleep apnea relieved with oral appliance therapy.
Sleep related breathing disorders have some resemblance to the old story about the frog that is placed in a pot of water on the stove. At first, the frog is quite happy in this tepid water. As the water starts heating up, the frog feels a sense of unease, but is not quite sure what is wrong. By the time he understands that the cause of his discomfort is the rapidly rising water temperature, he is too weak to jump out of the pot.
Many patients with sleep-related breathing disorders (like sleep apnea) are like our friend the frog and get to a point in their disorder that they find themselves in a vicious cycle that they can’t get out of by themselves. The sleep apnea causes fatigue and/or sleepiness during the daytime. Because of the daytime fatigue and sleepiness, it is quite difficult to exercise. Weight gain quickly follows. As weight is added, some of it goes to the neck. This added fatty deposit in the area of the neck causes the upper airway to narrow more. As the upper airway gets more narrow from fatty tissue encroachment, the sleep apnea gets worse……. and on, and on it goes.
It is this cycle that causes the new patient we saw today, who was referred to us by his physician, to describe his life as “a living death”. I fully expect this patient to experience a renewed sense of living once we help him get his disorder managed.
