Snoring Mouthpiece

Do you ever find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to a jab in the ribs or a pillow to the face? Chances are you that you are a loud snorer and your partner is punishing you for it. Snoring can range in loudness from person to person; from shaking awake a house of five to even being capable of waking the heavens (not really). However, snoring doesn’t need to keep you and your family from a good night’s sleep when effective methods for snoring prevention are available.

With the aid of a snoring mouthpiece, also known as an oral appliance, you and your family can sleep peacefully throughout the entirety of the night. To understand how snoring mouthpieces work, let’s first underline the causes of snoring. When you are asleep the muscles around your trachea, the airway behind your tongue, relax. When sleeping your relaxed muscles actually narrow and partially obstruct this airway, so when you breathe air causes the tissue of your airway to vibrate, producing that awful sound that keeps people up at night. A snoring mouthpiece looks very similar to the mouthpieces professional football players wear; however, this mouthpiece is expertly engineered to prevent snoring while you sleep. This oral appliance is designed to comfortably move your lower jaw forward by a few millimeters. By moving your jaw forward, the snoring mouthpiece opens your throat slightly, preventing your airway from becoming obstructed. So, if there isn’t an obstructed airway there won’t be any snoring, and if there isn’t any snoring there won’t be any sudden jabs to the ribs in the middle of the night.

Snoring mouthpieces are custom made to fit your mouth’s unique landscape, so they will fit comfortably and stay in place as you sleep. These oral appliances can be obtained at a dentist’s or orthodontist’s office. These oral appliances may treat snoring, but they aren’t without a few side effects. Using the appliance can result in having dry mouth, bouts of tooth and jaw discomfort as well as instances of excessive drooling.

In addition to putting a damper on snoring, the snoring mouthpiece also serves as an appliance that can effectively treat sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition in which individuals, while sleeping, experience abnormal pauses while breathing or the frequency of breathing is abnormally low. Though other methods, such as using a CPAP, are more effective than using a snoring mouthpiece, this oral appliance successfully treats cases of minor sleep apnea over 51% of the time. The snoring mouthpiece is significantly more tolerable than a CPAP and may be the preferred choice for individuals with minor sleep apnea. Before considering using an oral appliance to treat sleep apnea, consult with an experienced sleep physician.