Sleep and Airway
If you snore, wake up tired, or grind your teeth, the reason may be how you're breathing at night — and that's something we can help you find out.
Overview
At Decatur Smiles we can assist our patients with getting a home sleep study ordered through their medical insurance and delivered to their door. The results are read by board-certified sleep-specialist ENTs. Then, in many cases, we can fit a personally designed sleep appliance to treat mild to moderate sleep apnea. Many people find that their custom oral appliance is easy to get used to, and that traveling is easier too.
Obstructive sleep apnea patients use the appliance, which works by gently repositioning the jaw to move excess tissue and anatomy away from the back of the throat.
What it looks like in adults, and in children
In adults, the common signs are headaches, ongoing fatigue, snoring, and dry mouth.
In children we notice it more with mouth breathing, restless sleep often accompanied by grinding teeth, and focusing issues that can often be misdiagnosed as ADHD.
We may also assist in referrals to an airway-focused orthodontist, who may use palatal expanders or braces to create more space for your tongue placement and increase the airway.
How it works, step by step
- We ask about your sleep. Snoring, waking tired, morning headaches, a dry mouth, a partner who's noticed you stop breathing.
- A home sleep study. Ordered through your medical insurance and delivered to your door — you sleep in your own bed, not a lab.
- A specialist reads it. The results go to board-certified sleep-specialist ENTs, not to us. We're not the ones diagnosing you.
- If an appliance fits the case, we make one. Custom, for mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
Grinding and clenching is a different job
Grinding often turns up alongside restless sleep, so people meet both kinds of appliance in the same conversation — but they aren't the same thing. An occlusal guard or a clenching splint protects your teeth from the wear of grinding, and eases the jaw-muscle tension behind a lot of tension headaches. Neither of them treats sleep apnea. That's the sleep appliance above.
Frequently asked
Do I have to do a study in a sleep lab?
No — the study is done at home, in your own bed. It's ordered through your medical insurance and mailed to your door.
Is the oral appliance instead of a CPAP?
For mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea, an oral appliance is a recognized option, and many people find it easier to live with and to travel with. Whether it's right for you depends on what the sleep study shows — that's a call for the sleep physician reading it, not for us.
My child grinds their teeth and can't sit still at school.
Worth a conversation. Mouth breathing, restless sleep with grinding, and trouble focusing are the pattern we look for in children — and focusing problems can be put down to ADHD when the airway is what's driving them. We can look, and refer on to an airway-focused orthodontist if that's what's needed.