Sleep Apnea

Apnea means without breath. When patients come in for an exam, we will look at the tongue and airway to see if they need evaluation for sleep apnea. We do this because many men and some women, after age 40, will snore. Along with snoring, they will sometimes stop breathing. Sleep apnea can be classified as mild, moderate or severe.

An apnea event is when a person stops breathing during sleep for more than ten seconds. Some can be over a minute. If this happens more than 15 times in an hour, it is considered moderate sleep apnea.

If there is a concern, we can provide a watermark appliance for the patient to take home. The patient will wear the appliance at night to measure breathing, position, heart rate, brain waves and snoring. The information will be sent to a sleep doctor to determine the severity. If the problem is mild to moderate, we are able to do treatment. If the results show severe sleep apnea, we recommend an overnight sleep study at a sleep lab. Treatments that we provide include providing CPAP or continuous positive air pressure device. This device is worn by the patient during sleep and forces air so the patient doesn’t stop breathing. Another treatment that we use is oral appliance therapy. We can make a custom appliance that meets your specific need. The appliance causes the jaw to move forward so the airway doesn’t collapse. It takes some time to slowly calibrate the appliance so that it is comfortable and effective. Once treatment is underway, we will do additional home sleep studies to check for improvements.

There are other treatments that we do not provide including soft palate surgery and removal of tonsils. Sometimes these procedures can help. If you are in need of better sleep and you believe that snoring or sleep apnea may be the problem, please come in for a sleep apnea evaluation with Dr. Parker.

Snoring and Sleep apnea San Bruno - Symptoms and Treatment