Your Dentist Can Identify Sleep Apnoea Problems
10th / April / 2017
If breathing issues are adversely impacting the quality of your sleep, a quick trip to the dentist could be all it takes to identify probable cause. A research team has found that swollen tonsils and an enlarged tongue are risk factors for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).
This is a serious condition in which breathing pauses hundreds of time during the night, and increases risk of heart disease, diabetes and depression. Researchers say your dentist can identify the tongue and tonsil conditions, and refer you to a sleep apnoea specialist.
Key takeaways:
- OSA is linked to heart disease, diabetes, depression and dementia.
- Your dentist can identify signs of enlarged tonsils and tongue.
- This aides in the early referral to sleep medicine specialists of potentially at-risk patients
Future research will expand the sample size to include various age groups and will monitor participant sleep overnight to confirm the prevalence and severity of OSA.
Check out the full story here.
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