What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Over 20 million Americans suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Despite the high prevalence, 93% of women and 82% of men with moderate to severe OSA remain undiagnosed placing a significant cost burden on healthcare resource consumption. Additionally, OSA is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, arrhythmias, and even cancer. Besides health issues, OSA places a strain on relationships, the workplace and general well-being.

What Causes OSA?

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), occurs when the airway temporarily collapses during sleep, preventing or restricting breathing for up to ten seconds or more. OSA patients will commonly suffer from low oxygen levels in the blood, high blood pressure and an overall decrease in the quality of life due to daytime drowsiness and headaches. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. Such events can occur several hundred times a night severely disrupting sleep.

Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound. The term "sleep-disordered breathing" (SDB) includes a spectrum of respiratory disorders ranging in severity from snoring to OSA.

Sleep apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep 3 or more nights each week. You often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep when your breathing pauses or becomes shallow.

This results in poor sleep quality that makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is one of the leading causes of excessive daytime sleepiness.

How Greenwich Sleep Solutions Can Help

Here at Greenwich Sleep Solutions, we employ Continuous Open Airway Therapy for our patients who suffer from mild to moderate OSA. An oral device is fitted and worn much like a retainer or sport mouth-guard. They are designed to keep the mandible (jaw) and/or tongue in a forward position that allows the airway to remain open. Generally, oral devices work best for patients with mild to moderate OSA, patients who experience OSA mostly in the supine position (when sleeping on their backs), and for those who are not obese and do not have a large neck. In Advanced Brain Monitoring (ABM) clinical study, the ARES showed a 96% efficacy rate across all patients, even in patients who suffered from severe OSA but had failed CPAP therapy.

Greenwich Sleep Solutions has partnered with Watermark Medical as a way to offer our patients a convenient home sleep diagnostic test.