Dr. Richard W. Moore is a general dentist, a diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, and has limited his practice to the orthotic management of the airway. Sleep Medicine Network provides complete sleep medicine patient services, oral appliance therapy for sleep disordered breathing, medical insurance credentialing, contracting and billing services for the sleep medicine and dental sleep medicine communities, AGD accredited continuing dental education and consultation services for dental offices interested in practicing dental sleep medicine in accordance with AASM practice parameters. To learn more about Dr. Moore's practice, please visit the SLEEP MEDICINE NETWORK. SNORING and SLEEP APNEAThese terms describe parts of the continuum of airway collapsibility expressed as sleep-disordered breathing. This spectrum ranges from slight vibration of tissues at its mildest to death from asphyxiation at its severe extreme. Between lies pathologic snoring and periods of complete airway closure and breathing cessation called "apnea". Some of the most serious chronic diseases of man have been associated with snoring and sleep apnea, including: stroke, hypertension (high blood pressure), myocardial infarction (heart attack), arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), cardiac arrhythmias (irregular pulse), diabetes, gastro-esophageal reflux disorder (GERD), polycythemia vera (thickening of the blood) and others. Sleep disordered breathing also disrupts the normal patterns of brain activity and relaxation, precluding restorative sleep. Overwhelming daytime sleepiness contributes to the risk of accident and injury from decreased attention span, judgment and reflex. The risk of automobile accident in the untreated sleep apnea patient is about 8 times that of the normal sleeper. Work productivity and safety suffer.
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Copyright ® 2006 Richard W. Moore, DDS. All rights reserved. |
