Sleep Apnea Treatment

An important focus at Artise Dental is treating patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, upper airway resistance syndrome, and chronic snoring. Dr. Trischa Tuesta focuses on dental sleep medicine, advanced dental technology, and 3D airway and craniofacial imaging when creating treatment plans for sleep apnea patients.

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing stops periodically during sleep, as many as 20-30 times per hour. Each time you stop breathing in your sleep, the resulting lack of oxygen alerts your brain, which temporarily wakes you up to restart proper breathing.

There are three types of sleep apnea:

Obstructive: The patient is making an effort to breathe but cannot because the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses.
Central: The patient is not trying to breathe (respiratory efforts are absent), because the muscles involved don't receive the proper signal from the brain.
Mixed: A combination of obstructive and central, where the event is more central than obstructive.

People who suffer from sleep apnea often experience:

Unexplained daytime sleepiness
Restless sleep and loud snoring
Trouble concentrating
Irritability or anxiety
Forgetfulness
TMD symptoms or bruxism

Your Diagnosis

Dr. Tuesta uses state-of-the-art technologies to aid in screening patients for sleep-related breathing disorders. She knows that collaboration with primary care physicians, sleep physicians, ENTs, and other specialists is key to provide the highest level of care for her patients.

Diagnosis of sleep apnea includes an in-office screening and questionnaire including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Patients who have a screening outcome that indicates the possibility of a sleep disorder are referred to their physician or a sleep physician for a sleep study. Patients who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea by a physician are screened for CPAP intolerance to see if a mandibular advancement device is an alternative treatment choice.