OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA (OSA) is the most serious form of sleep disordered breathing, affecting 15 to 20 million Americans.  It is characterized by intermittent episodes of complete cessation of breathing due to a total airway collapse, despite a persistent effort to breathe.  OSA is a potentially life-threatening medical disorder and progressively worsens with advancing age and weight gain. 

When OSA occurs, the tongue is sucked against the back of the throat and blocks the upper airway causing airflow to stop.  When breathing stops, a listener hears the snoring broken by a pause until the sleeper gasps for air and awakens.  During sleep, this abnormal disrupted breathing phenomenon occurs numerous times (5-80 times per an hour depending on the severity), which disrupts ventilation and reduces the amount of oxygen supply to the blood, to the lung, to the heart, and to the brain, inducing sleep fragment, disrupting normal sleep cycles, and creating various heart related disease and general health problems.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea present risk to the general public safety by causing 8-fold increase in vehicle accidents, and left untreated can cause: excessive day time sleepiness,  morning headaches, personality changes, irritability, anxiety or depression, poor job performance, clouded memory, intellectual deterioration, decreased sex drive, dry mouth upon awakening, hypertension, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack,  stroke, and sudden death during sleep.