IN JUST THE UNITED STATES,<\/strong> sleep apnea affects over 18 million adults and up to 20 percent of children who habitually snore. Sleep apnea is a disorder involving brief, repeated interruptions to normal breathing during sleep. In addition to being potentially life-threatening, this disorder can be very harmful to oral health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Different Types of Sleep Apnea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are different ways sleep apnea can occur. The most common is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), caused by a blocked airway<\/strong> \u2014 typically the tongue collapsing against the soft palate, which then collapses against the back of the throat, leaving no space for air to get through. A rarer form is central sleep apnea, in which the brain fails to signal the respiratory muscles to keep breathing. Some people experience a combination of the two, which is called complex sleep apnea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any type of sleep apnea, the brain reacts with alarm to the lack of air and forces the person to wake up and take a breath. Even though this process is over in seconds and they usually remember nothing,\u00a0it can happen hundreds of times in a single night<\/strong>. We need uninterrupted sleep in order to be fully rested, so even tiny interruptions can have a very detrimental impact on quality of sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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