Snoring Your Way to Poor Health: The Health Risks of Snoring
Sure, snoring can be annoying for both you and your partner. But in many cases, snoring can also be detrimental and dangerous. The noisy breathing interrupting your slumber could be a sign of sleep apnea, a dangerous condition where you occasionally stop breathing while you sleep. This condition affects your daily life and puts you at risk for vascular disease. But, whether or not you have sleep apnea, you should know the health risks of snoring.
What are the Risks?
Besides keeping your partner awake at night, snoring has the following potential negative effects on your health:
- Lack of quality sleep: Snoring could cause long interruptions of breathing, frequent waking, and light sleeping. This leads to drowsiness and lack of energy, which significantly affects your daily life, including work performance, academic performance, and relationships with your family and friends.
- Strain on the heart: If your snoring is a sign of sleep apnea, you could experience increased blood pressure and heart attack risk.
- Disease risk: Besides being an indicator of sleep apnea, snoring may thicken the carotid arteries, which supply the head and neck with blood. This could lead to carotid artery disease, which blocks the blood supply to your brain and increases risk of stroke.
How Do You Prevent Snoring?
If your snoring is minimal, the following lifestyle changes could bring you the improvement you need:
- Losing weight
- Avoiding sleeping pills
- Avoiding alcohol and heavy meals before bed
- Establishing regular sleeping patterns
- Sleeping on your side
- Treating allergies
How Do You Treat Snoring?
If your snoring is keeping you (and your partner) up at night without any sign of relief, it’s time to explore your treatment options. Consult with a doctor; they may refer you to a sleep specialist, who will perform a sleep test. The specialist may then present you with one of the following options:
- Surgery on the back of the throat and roof of the mouth.
- Use of CPAP, an appliance that blows air into the back of the throat.
- Use of an oral appliance from a dentist experienced in snoring treatment.
At Dentrix, we create custom-fitted anti-snoring devices that look like retainers or mouth guards. When worn during sleep, these devices prevent snoring without invasive surgery or bulky equipment.
If a doctor has recommended oral appliance therapy, Dentrix can create a customized appliance to relieve your snoring and help you and your partner get a great night’s sleep. Call us at 403-288-5500 (Market Mall location<) or 403-289-9908 (North Hill location) to learn more!