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SLEEP is one of the most important things we as human beings must do and an essential component along with good nutrition and exercise to optimal health. Sleep provides the physical and emotional renewal we require and interwoven with every facet of our health, productivity, and well being including; energy, emotions, moods swings, behavior, marriage stability, employment factors, our very sanity and happiness. We are created to spend one third of our precious lives sleeping. If you try to sleep less hours a day, because you think it is a waste of time, you may end up with multiple illnesses, mental disabilities, or a shorter life expectancy before reaching your goal.
" SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE!"
While there are self rising factors why we may not have a good night sleep, such as worries and depression, many people cannot have a peaceful sleep because their sleep is under attack by other forces, such as loud snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. When we sleep, our body relaxes its legs, arms, face, neck, nerves, muscles, and also relaxes the soft tissues in the oral region such as the uvula, soft palate, tonsils, adenoid tissue and tongue. If these muscles relax too much and the tongue falls back too far, it narrows the airway and causes various sleep-related breathing disorders.
If you have such disorders you may experience not only from loud snoring, choking and gasping while asleep, but also suffer from difficulty in breathing, shallow sleep, multiple arousals, which can contribute to an un-refreshed feeling in the morning, daytime sleepiness, morning headache and chronic fatigue. According to many clinical studies and observations, un-treated sleep breathing disorders, especially obstructive sleep apnea, can cause serious health problems: cardiovascular complications, high blood pressure, worsening diabetes, gastro-esophageal-reflex-disease (GERD), stroke, and sudden death during sleep.
Dental Sleep Medicine is one of the most exciting medical-dental connections and is an integral part of the "sleep team". It focuses on the management of sleep-related breathing disorders (SBD), which includes snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), with oral appliance therapy (OAT) and upper airway surgery. It is extremely gratifying to help an astonishing 50-70 million Americans who are experiencing sleep-related breathing disorders to breath better, sleep better, and to see their quality of life improve greatly by providing an effective and comfortable Oral Appliance.
Dental Sleep Medicine is more than general dentistry and should be performed by qualified dentists who have extended education, knowledge, and hands-on training. Oral appliance therapy involves the selection, fabrication, fitting, adjustments, and long term follow-up care (and management of potential complications such as malocclusion and temporomandibular joint dysfunction) of custom-designed oral devices, worn only during sleep, to reposition the mandible and tongue base anteriorly to enlarge and stabilize the oropharyngeal airway.
American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM) is an international organization that has meetings year-round for dentists, physicians and dental professionals who seek an in-depth introduction to dental sleep medicine and oral appliance therapy, which includes the continuum of snoring to obstructive sleep apnea with oral appliance therapy and upper airway surgery. www.aadsm.org.
At TMJ, Head & Neck Pain Center, Dr. Kim is certified from the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. All staff members are highly educated, trained and certified to operate state of the art equipment and various testings. Dr. Kim welcomes referrals from all health practitioners and individuals who wish to treat or manage loud snoring and obstructive sleep apnea with an oral appliance, have a second opinion or who have problems with CPAP or surgery.