A follow up to our last Sleep Apnea article

As I stated in last month, there are serious health implications to untreated sleep apnea. 

The first step is a referral to your MD who in turn would refer you to a sleep clinic. At the sleep clinic, you would spend the night and there they would monitor the quality of sleep you get and the number of episodes in which you stop breathing and for how long.

 I did not mention in the last newsletter, the other reason sleep is so important is it allows our body to repair itself. But, you need to get the proper REM sleep phase in order for your body to recover.

Another aspect is weight loss is difficult without proper sleep.

Once the sleep study has been performed and evaluated. There are 3 forms of sleep apnea: mild, moderate and severe. The number of episodes that you stop breathing in 1 hour is how they rate you in terms of mild to severe. There have been a number of treatments over the years, but to date the gold standard is a CPAP, especially for sever sleep apnea. CPAP, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure, works as the name suggests by keeping the airway open with positive constant pressure. The big problem with CPAP’s is compliance. Many patients just do not wear them (ie over 50% never wear it).

The other treatment option is an oral appliance, which works by positioning the lower jaw forward slightly, which in turn opens the airway. This appliance works well for mild to moderate sleep apnea. With regards to severe sleep apnea, the oral appliances can be used in combination with the CPAP, in order to lower the pressure and hence make the CPAP more tolerable.

One other choice if the CPAP is not tolerable, is to just go with an oral sleep appliance, which will improve but not eliminate the sleep apnea (therefore is not ideal, but still beneficial). There a numerous variations of the appliance depending on the patients anatomy and muscular makeup.

Sincerely, 
Dr. Ian Gray 

We are proud to announce our 5th annual 

Starting November 21st and continuing on until December 20th we will be collecting non-perishable food donations for the Newmarket Food Bank. For the last two years our drive has been largely successful thanks to the generous donations made by patients and staff! Once again this year Dr. Gray will donate $1 for each pound of food collected or dollar for dollar on cash donations.

Thank you for helping us support the Newmarket Food Bank

Movember

Join us Thursday November 17^th!!

for a "stash selfie". Dr. Gray will donate $5 for every person that comes by for a photo. Help us raise funds and awareness for this worthy cause!!!

In Movember, also known as Mustache November, men everywhere in the world are growing out their mustaches in order to bring awareness to prostate and testicular cancer.  The organization’s hope is that people will donate the money normally spent on waxing and shaving to the Cancer Society. Here are some interesting facts:

1. Albert Einstein sported his mustache for over 50 years.
2. In a deck of cards the King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache

3.  The oldest recorded mustache dates back to at around 300 B.C

4. On average a man with a mustache touches it 760 times a day.

5. US marines are not permitted to grow mustaches longer than half an inch.

6.  A man spends an average of five months of his life shaving if he starts at the age of 14 — assuming that he lives until he’s 75 years old.

7. Not only are men seen as more attractive with it, but facial hair might also help protect against skin cancer. This past year, a study conducted at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia found that facial hair can prevent skin cancer against 90 to 95 percent of harmful UV rays.

8. Since it first launched 13 years ago, the Movember campaign has raised over $800 million.

9. When twisted at the ends, mustache wearers have been known to exhibit fits of evil genius

Dr. Ian Gray Dentistry Team - Halloween 2016