When you suffer from sleep apnea, the muscles in the back of your throat relax and restricts your normal breathing. Additionally, your tongue falls backward and your airway narrows – even closing altogether – limiting your breathing and ultimately lowering your blood oxygen levels. To kick-start your breathing again, your brain momentarily wakes you up, which allows you to re-open your airway and start breathing again. This entire process is quick so most people aren’t even aware it’s happening.

This potentially life-threatening pattern of sleep apnea can be alleviated by keeping your airway open, with a simple snoring/sleep apnea device. The appliance essentially prohibits your jaw from falling back and restricting your airway, while you sleep.  It gently holds your jaw forward in its proper position, which in turn ensures your airways are clear and open.  The appliance offered by sleep dentist Dr. Shauna Palmer in Kelowna, allows for open, unobstructed breathing all night long.

An oral sleep appliance re-positions your jaw and tongue to a more forward position, helping keep your airway open during sleep. Since Dr. Palmer uses a physiologic technique to determine this position, it is more effective, it stops grinding of teeth, it is easy to adapt to, and it prevents and reduces more common side effects of traditional sleep apnea devices like TMJ pain and bite changes. This physiologic position relaxes the jaw, airway, and neck muscles with the help of ultra-low frequency TENS and computerized jaw tracking to achieve this position.

NOTE: Patients are required to be tested for obstructive sleep apnea prior to fabrication of a dental sleep apnea or snoring device. If sleep apnea is present a referral is required by a physician before proceeding with this treatment.

Introducing, MicrO2 Sleep and Snore Device

Using the MicrO2 device has its advantages:

• light in weight
• no tongue space invasion
• no metal parts to adjust or weaken the appliance