Snoring Doesn't Cut It in Relationships

Snoring Isn't SEXy AND THE CITY

The new movie "Sex and the City," based in part on writer Candace Bushnell's book of the same name, is a romantic comedy about four female friends living in New York City featuring dialogue about romance and sexuality.

Imagine that Miranda's relationship with Steve has gone down the hopper because Steve snores loudly and has been sleeping in a different room. Samantha has moved to L.A. with Smith who has a successful television career but has packed on pounds , stops breathing frequently at night and is now taking Viagra. Carrie's wedding plans with Big are in doubt because Big just had a heart attack (he awoke at 4:30 AM with chest pains and was rushed to the hospital) and has been advised not to have sex for a couple of months. Meanwhile Charlotte, who thought everything was perfect, was driving to work, fell asleep, and is now recuperating from the accident.

Just a little different scenario for the movie would ensue if any of the girls or the men they sleep with snore or have sleep apnea.

Snoring and Obstructive sleep apnea can ruin both relationships and health. Think about it.

Dr. Barsh

Over the Counter snore Appliances

A plethora of the so-called boil and bite appliances are available on the Internet. These devices claim to "cure" snoring and apnea. Most are not FDA approved and are illegal in the united States.

While some will no doubt stop snoring, this will not treat your apnea and may actually increase the problem causing the apneic incidents to become worse.

Please remember that sleep apnea has serious medical consequences including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.

It's always best to visit a qualified dentist or sleep physician.

Dr. Barsh
Larry Barsh, DMD
Snoringisntsexy.com
Quietsleep.com

Dental Sleep Medicine - The need for a new specialty in dentistry

Dentistry has several specialty classifications : oral surgery, orthodontics, prosthodontics (crown and bridge) and endodontics (root canal). These specialties were developed in response to the need for specialized additional education in these areas of dentistry.

Today, with dentistry's increasing role in the recognition and treatment of sleep-breathing disorders, there is a need for a new specialty - that of dental sleep medicine. While basic training in dentistry is required, a comprehensive knowledge of sleep medicine would benefit those entering this field and make interaction with physician colleagues more productive. Dental sleep medicine is as unlike general, restorative dentistry as is the specialty of oral surgery and requires as much medical background.

The amount of knowledge required to practice dental sleep medicine is growing at an exponential rate that is difficult to fit into a standard dental school curriculum. For now, self-directed study with continuing education courses is probably sufficient but as the sheer volume of patients with sleep apnea expands, as we learn more about the medical ramifications of this disorder and as home sleep studies become more accurate, specially trained sleep-breathing dental specialists will be asked to assume more of the diagnostic and therapeutic roles.

Choosing a dentist for oral appliance therapy, for now, is in the hands of the individual.
The dentist you choose to treat your problem with sleep disordered breathing must be properly educated and with adequate experience. Legally, any dentist can treat snoring and/or sleep apnea with an oral appliance, however, that does not mean that every dentist has the necessary experience and training to provide proper therapy. Because no special qualifications are required it is your responsibility to choose your dentist wisely.

A qualified sleep-disorders dentist should have:

• Appropriate knowledge of sleep medicine
• Adequate training in oral appliance therapy
  
• Years of experience with many different appliance types
  
• Solid relationships with local sleep labs and sleep physicians
  
• Current knowledge of emerging trends
  
• Ability to derive maximum insurance benefits for you
  
• A team approach with other professionals
  
• A proven follow-up system to ensure healthy results long-term
  
• In-depth knowledge of oral appliance research

Where's the damn outlet?

I don't know about you but I can't afford to fly business class.

Now, fortunately, I don't need a CPAP but I've flown on enough 12 to 14 hour overnight flights to be aware of the amount of snoring and choking and gasping that occurs in coach. Despite the fact that coach seats don't recline there's still a lot of people who have problems with apnea on these flights. There may be electrical outlets and room to place a CPAP machine in business/first class but space and electrical outlets are nowhere to be had in coach.

Once off the plane and into a hotel room, another set of problems becomes evident when you travel with CPAP. Have you ever tried to find an outlet near the bed where you can plug in your CPAP machine? Heck, I often can't find an outlet to recharge my cell phone without moving furniture to say nothing about forgetting the plug adapter for European and Asian countries.

Oral appliances designed to control obstructive sleep apnea are an (almost) ideal solution for travel and, often, can be used as an alternative to CPAP at home for those who find the CPAP mask confining.

Problem is that sometimes something breaks. And it usually breaks at the worst possible time in the worst possible location. Most dentists know little about oral appliances used to treat obstructive sleep apnea and physicians know even less.

As oral appliance therapy for snoring and sleep apnea becomes more and more prevalent, it becomes more and more important for dentistry to establish a network of dentists who have been trained and are knowledgeable about oral appliance therapy. It's the goal of Snoring Isn't Sexy to develop a global network of well-educated and well-trained dentists who can provide oral appliance therapy and act as a resource to the traveler everywhere in the world.

Dr. Larry Barsh

Men's Hair Color vs. Heart Disease and Hypertension

The bad news: it looks like subtracting just a little bit of gray is way more important than talking about a serious health problem.

When we started SnoringIsntSexy.com, we figured that the name of the site would attract some of the "Style" Editors by introducing a medical problem as a lifestyle issue (especially with recent research linking snoring and sleep apnea to erectile dysfunction) but it looks like we may have been somewhat misguided.

The New York Times Style section this morning had a full page discussion of how men can restore "gray locks to a comely mix of salt and pepper." Never mind that snoring and sleep apnea can lead to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression and accidental injury and death, people seem to be more concerned with their appearance than with their health. One gentleman was quoted as saying "In my business, if you're over 40 you're too old..." I guess that just the right touch of gray makes up for excessive daytime sleepiness and inability to concentrate.

Snoring and sleep apnea are lifestyle issues as well as being causally related to serious disease problems. What is seemingly more important than ensuring one's health is "Fooling That Thief, Time. With a Change of Locks." The article goes on "But [gray hair] has also been associated with death, health problems, diminished mental abilities and loss of sexual potency, said Victoria Sherrow, the author of ' Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History.' "

Hey, that's really funny because research has proven that snoring and sleep apnea really are associated with death, health problems, diminished mental abilities and loss of sexual potency!

I urge editors and writers to take a close look at a problem that affects the quality of life and the health of more than 18 million men, women and children in the United States alone and that of untold millions more who snore. Just maybe, with the right approach, we can save lives and millions of dollars a year in unnecessary health care expenditures.

Dr. Larry Barsh

Medical Information on the Web

As a dentist and founder of SnoringIsntSexy.com and Quietsleep.com, I am continually searching the web for new and vital information to keep the sites up-to-date and valuable for patients. Neither site is intended as medical advice (you should always see your own physician and dentist) but they are intended rather to keep you informed.

I am, however, continually frustrated, when attempting to research a bit of information, by sites that require one to subscribe to a journal or pay an outlandish fee (usually $40 or $50) for a pdf copy before being able to read that scientific article.

I am aware, of course, that it takes dollars to bring a journal to print. But withholding information to doctors (whether physician or dentist) that can be critical to their patient's care is simply unconscionable. It is critical to our patients' well being that a free flow of information be available.

Journals should adopt what is basically a web model in thousands of other instances and let free article access be supported by advertising. I'm not asking for access to an entire month's publication but rather to a single article on a particular current topic.

Any other opinions on this?

Dr. Larry Barsh

Epworth Sleepiness Scale

One of the questionnaires that most dentists rely on when taking a history for sleep apnea is called the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale measures the likelihood that one will fall asleep inappropriately under a variety of daytime conditions but does not specifically test for sleep apnea. So when answering the questions on the test, be aware that many problems including sleep apnea will lead to a positive result.

"Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is commonly assumed to be the result of disturbed or inadequate sleep" wrote Dr Edward Bixler and colleagues at Penn State University. Bixler studied other possible causes of excessive daytime sleepiness and found that EDS is also associated with mood disorders as well as metabolic factors like obesity and/or diabetes. Depression was found to be the biggest risk factor followed by BMI, age, typical sleep duration, diabetes and smoking.

Patients with a high Epworth score should be evaluated by their physician whether or not sleep-disordered brething is present.