{"id":944,"date":"2019-04-29T13:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=944"},"modified":"2019-04-29T13:50:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:50:25","slug":"breathing-is-important-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/breathing-is-important-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BREATHING IS IMPORTANT \u2013 PART 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"207\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/14995199370_efa9c58751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"949\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=949\" class=\"wp-image-949\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/14995199370_efa9c58751_n.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/14995199370_efa9c58751_n-300x194.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week I\nintroduced Part 1 of \u201cBreathing is Important\u201d. For this week\u2019s column to make\nthe most sense, I would encourage you to read that column first. It can be\nfound at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetowncommon.com\">www.thetowncommon.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In case you don\u2019t\nhave a chance to read it, here is a brief recap: I have been involved in\ntreating patients with sleep apnea for a few years. These are patients who have\nbeen diagnosed with sleep apnea by a physician, but were unable or unwilling to\nuse a CPAP machine. The next line of defense to treat this progressive disease\nis a dental appliance which prevents the lower jaw from falling back during\nsleep. Despite all my education on this topic, I grew frustrated. Not only was I\nnot treating as many patients as I wanted, I also had way too many patients,\nwho I knew had issues, but would have a \u201cnormal\u201d sleep study. I decided I\nneeded more education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Relatively\nspeaking, the research in this area of medicine is early in its development.\nThere is clear evidence that sleep disordered breathing affects more people in\nmore ways than was thought in the past. As the research continues, more people\nwill be able to be helped to breath and sleep better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although there\nare many people with obstructive sleep apnea who need treatment, with either\nCPAP or a dental appliance, there are many more people who have the same signs\nand symptoms as people with apnea and poor sleep, but they &#8220;pass&#8221; a\nsleep study. Problems related to the airway, in most cases, start very early in\ndevelopment, and progress throughout life to finally show up in a sleep study\nas apnea when a person is older. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not a\nsleep problem; it is a breathing problem based on anatomy. It is an evolutionary\/developmental\nproblem. Dentists have an extremely important role to play in helping to\nidentify these issues in all phases of life, especially in children, where most\nof these problems begin. Identifying them early can allow intervention through\northodontics and other non-invasive therapy, and completely change the course\nof development, leading to a life of better breathing and better health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For adults, because\nthey have stopped growing, and have signs and symptoms related to breathing issues\nbut would otherwise &#8220;pass&#8221; a sleep study, there is help available. Identifying\nthose people, controlling the problems causing these issues, and offering ways\nto a more permanent resolution, is where medicine and dentistry must grow\ntogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sleep apnea is\nthe end stage of this breathing disorder. Treatment for those with sleep apnea\nis typically either the &#8220;gold standard&#8221; of CPAP, wearing a mask on\nyour face for the rest of your life, or wearing a dental appliance in your\nmouth for the rest of your life (although it may not work forever), or major\nsurgery to fix the anatomy that is causing this progressive disease. The goal\nis to not get to the end stage of this disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I learn and\nshare more about this topic in the future, you will be amazed at some of the\nthings that are related to breathing issues, such as ADHD, developmental\nissues, memory problems, TMJ pain, poor quality sleep, snoring, and a host of\nother things. While research in this area is ongoing, there is plenty of\nscientific evidence already out there to support this information. Breath well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. St. Clair\nmaintains a private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to\nhealth-centered family dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to\nsee written about or questions you have please email them to him at <a href=\"mailto:jpstclair@stclairdmd.com\">jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\">www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I introduced Part 1 of \u201cBreathing is Important\u201d. For this week\u2019s column to make the most sense, I would encourage you to read that column first. It can be found at www.thetowncommon.com. In case you don\u2019t have a chance to read it, here is a brief recap: I have been involved in treating patients with sleep apnea for a few years. These are patients who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea by a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}