Is Sleep Apnea a Risk to Your Long-term Health?
People often don’t take snoring or waking up in the middle of the night seriously. However, in some cases, sleep apnea or respiratory arrest during sleep may be the cause of all this. What’s more, this disease is quite dangerous and can lead to serious consequences.
Why Sleep Apnea is a Problem
So, apnea is a pause in breathing and the number of such stops can reach up to hundreds of times per hour. If you take all these seconds of seizures, then about 3-4 hours of sleep can go out without oxygen entering the body.
Some of the symptoms of sleep apnea includes:
- Dryness in the mouth.
- Fatigue in the morning.
- Frequent awakenings in the middle of the night.
- Loud snoring
The Risks in the Long-term Health
Unfortunately, stopping breathing during sleep has many consequences for the body in the long term. What is more, these consequences do not seem dangerous at first, but in the long term, they can even lead to death. Some of the risks with not treating sleep apnea include:
- Various diseases of the cardiovascular system, heart failure.
- Development of diabetes.
- Hypertension.
- Heart attack, stroke, cerebral hemorrhage.
- Complete respiratory arrest with a fatal outcome (in rare cases).
Can a Dentist Treat Sleep Apnea?
Absolutely! Dentists are trained to look for oral abnormalities in the mouth and usually are the first to discover you could have a sleeping disorder such as sleep apnea. If you are suffering from sleep apnea, it is advisible to consult the dentist near me, and once a diagnosis is made, the dentist can offer an oral appliance to treat sleep apnea.
The Final Verdict
Timely detection of this disease, and consultation with a dentist will help treat sleep apnea
