Den­tal Sleep Medi­ci­ne

Sno­ring Does not Have to be!

60% of all men and 40% of all women over 60 sno­re. Among 30-year-olds, it is only 10% of men and 5% of women.

The per­son affec­ted often does not noti­ce their sno­ring at all — but suf­fers from the con­se­quen­ces such as dry mouth, hoar­sen­ess, and sore throat. Howe­ver, the part­ners usual­ly feel more dis­tur­bed by the sno­ring noi­ses. The­r­e­fo­re, a solu­ti­on must be sought tog­e­ther. Den­tists can help you!

Dr. Mar­co Geor­gi M.Sc.

…is cer­ti­fied accor­ding to the cri­te­ria of the Ger­man Socie­ty of Den­tal Sleep Medi­ci­ne (DGZS).

Sno­ring

… is cau­sed by flut­te­ring and oscil­la­ti­on of mus­cles and soft tis­sues in the nar­ro­wed throat. Becau­se the mus­cles relax during sleep, the lower jaw with the ton­gue falls back­wards and thus nar­rows the air­way. Low tis­sue ten­si­on and being over­weight can have a rein­for­cing effect. This is why sno­ring pro­blems increase signi­fi­cant­ly with age.

Breathing inter­rup­ti­ons – sleep apnea

This sleep dis­or­der invol­ves breathing inter­rup­ti­ons las­ting lon­ger than 10 seconds. The result is an ina­de­qua­te sup­p­ly of oxy­gen throug­hout the blood­stream – inclu­ding in the brain.

Unno­ti­ced, this trig­gers con­stant­ly recur­ring wake-up reac­tions. A restful deep sleep is no lon­ger pos­si­ble. Per­for­mance the next day is sever­ely limi­t­ed.

Sleep apnea can have serious effects:

  • High blood pres­su­re, car­diac arrhyth­mia, increased risk of heart attack
  • Increased risk of stro­ke
  • Micros­leep while dri­ving and at work
  • Depres­si­on and list­less­ness
  • Dis­tur­bed sexua­li­ty

In short: The qua­li­ty of life is rest­ric­ted and life expec­tancy is redu­ced.

The “Sno­ring Splint”

Dis­tur­bing sno­ring and mild to mode­ra­te sleep apnea can be trea­ted with den­tal splints, simi­lar to braces or a sports mouth­guard.

The two-part den­tal splints, manu­fac­tu­red accor­ding to den­tal impres­si­ons, hold the lower jaw, ton­gue and soft pala­te for­ward during sleep. This keeps the throat wide open, the flac­cid throat mus­cles are sta­bi­li­zed and the lungs are sup­pli­ed with enough air again to suf­fi­ci­ent­ly satu­ra­te the blood with oxy­gen.

The­se man­di­bu­lar advance­ment splints can be adjus­ted via spe­cial con­nec­ting ele­ments bet­ween the upper and lower jaw splint so that the alar­ming wake-up reac­tions do not occur — and your part­ner and you can sleep more peaceful­ly and restful­ly at night. The splints are fit­ted in the prac­ti­ce at Kureck by a spe­cia­li­zed den­tist who works tog­e­ther with sleep medi­ci­ne spe­cia­lists.