What is obstructive sleep apnea?

Video Overview

Hi I'm Richard Jacobson, board certified orthodontist, faculty at UCLA for 30 years, 30 years private practice here in Pacific Palisades where I'm director of Face center LA. What is obstructive sleep apnea? Obstructive sleep apnea is mostly an anatomical condition where there is some blockage of the airway. As we breathe in through the nose, the air passes through the nose, and before it goes into the lung, it goes into the pharynx, and the blockage can occur really anywhere. And, based on where the blockage is, and how much is blocked, will determine how little or much oxygen we're getting in, mostly at night time. During the day time when we're up and away and breathing and talking and enjoying our normal day to day life, our muscle tonicity is so good that nobody really has very much of a breathing problem. But it's at night time, when we lie down and muscle begin to relax and the tissues collapse, that the blockage really begins to really affect the passage of the oxygen into the lungs.