Sleep Apnea Treatment

WEBVTT 00:00:03.186 --> 00:00:08.085 One of the more recent treatments that we do for patients 00:00:08.086 --> 00:00:10.914 is treating sleep apnea. 00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:17.270 I mentioned before, I have a particular interest in treating sleep apnea 00:00:17.271 --> 00:00:24.043 because my dad died at the age of 62 from a sudden heart attack. 00:00:25.986 --> 00:00:28.000 It left my family pretty devastated. 00:00:28.001 --> 00:00:32.543 I had two sisters that were still in high school, who've lost their dad. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.920 It made such an impact on our whole family. 00:00:39.014 --> 00:00:43.243 More recently, in the last, well, 20 years, I've been doing this. 00:00:43.314 --> 00:00:50.759 We make dental devices that patients can wear at night to reposition their jaw, 00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:54.919 so that their airway is more open and they don't stop breathing at night. 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:58.386 It's not really so much life-changing as life extending 00:00:58.657 --> 00:01:02.800 because I think in providing that care. 00:01:02.801 --> 00:01:07.670 We screen every patient that comes in the office for sleep apnea 00:01:07.671 --> 00:01:10.719 and recommend testing if they need it in treatment. 00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:13.386 Sometimes they need to wear CPAP, 00:01:14.229 --> 00:01:19.414 which is a mask that blows air into their system. 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:23.640 But it saves lives, and it makes a big difference, 00:01:23.641 --> 00:01:27.171 because saving that life is not only that person, 00:01:27.172 --> 00:01:30.086 but it's the family that that person has. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.600 This is a typical sleep appliance, 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:39.760 and you'll notice it's made of plastic, and it's very light. 00:01:40.371 --> 00:01:45.500 We have different size elastics that we can place on the appliance 00:01:45.501 --> 00:01:47.585 to change the position of the appliance. 00:01:47.586 --> 00:01:49.528 The patient will wear this at night, 00:01:49.529 --> 00:01:53.600 and it will change the position of their jaw, opening up their airways, 00:01:53.601 --> 00:01:56.671 so they can breathe better while they're sleeping. 00:01:56.971 --> 00:01:59.271 Just yesterday, I had a patient come in 00:01:59.356 --> 00:02:03.943 who we had referred to a sleep doctor in the community, 00:02:05.486 --> 00:02:10.843 and he stopped breathing 80 times in an hour, 00:02:11.357 --> 00:02:16.971 and that was just killing him slowly. 00:02:17.829 --> 00:02:21.600 He came to me and said, you've saved my life. 00:02:24.257 --> 00:02:26.999 That makes all the difference in the world to me, 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:32.520 that we can provide that care and response from our patients.