Live episode from March 8, 2022.
Dr. Michelle discusses sleep-related breathing disorders and how dentists can help.
Learn more at: https://jacksonvillebeachdentist.com/services/snoring-treatment/
Live episode from March 8, 2022.
Dr. Michelle discusses sleep-related breathing disorders and how dentists can help.
Learn more at: https://jacksonvillebeachdentist.com/services/snoring-treatment/
Kevin (00:05):
It's time for Dr. Michelle's Smile Cast where we talk about your smile and other interesting dental topics. And now here's Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke of Jax Beaches Family Dentistry.
Kevin (00:27):
Oh, a little bad English there. Not on my part. Well, that's a regular thing, bad English. That's actually the name of the group. Make me smile. Isn't that nice? That is nice. I like that. Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke is with us, live here in the studio and she has a pretty smile. She'd like to help you have one as well. Today we're going to talk about a dental health topic that we all often think about sleeping. We spent how much of our lives sleeping or we're supposed to,
Dr. Michelle (00:54):
Oh, a mattress salesman pulled that line on me one time when I was complaining about how expensive mattress,
Kevin (00:59):
But you spend half your life on this thing.
Dr. Michelle (01:02):
As it was coming out of my mouth, I was trying to put it back in my mouth. I knew he was going to say that.
Kevin (01:07):
And we had Derek who runs all the Badcock home furniture and more stores around here, and he was saying that now it's like it was sort of a specialty thing five years ago. The adjustable base for your mattress. Now it has become an absolute essential. Everyone must have the adjustable base
Dr. Michelle (01:27):
Of sleep apnea.
Kevin (01:28):
Oh, is that it? And snoring. Well, it does have a snore button on it. Yeah,
Dr. Michelle (01:31):
I'm sure it
Kevin (01:32):
Does. It doesn't really work all that well though. It works briefly. So we're going to talk about, well, what can a dentist, someone has accomplished as Dr. Michelle Huey, what can a dentist do to deal with snoring and sleep apnea?
Dr. Michelle (01:47):
Wow.
Kevin (01:48):
What can you
Dr. Michelle (01:48):
Do? That's a big
Kevin (01:49):
Question. So if somebody's snoring yes, how can you fix it?
Dr. Michelle (01:55):
Well, we have multiple modalities to fix it. The cool thing at our office too is that we're able to do a home sleep test to make sure that all they have is a snoring issue. So that's nice.
Kevin (02:08):
What could they have?
Dr. Michelle (02:09):
So they could have sleep apnea or an airway restriction. So sleep apnea is a diagnosis that's made when your sleep test comes back and it's above a certain level. You can have mild to moderate sleep apnea, which we call an airway restriction, not actually full-blown apnea. So yeah, we have sleep tests that allows us to figure out what the extent of the issue is. If someone is snoring and they don't have any medical diagnosis, then what we can do, there's multiple things we can do. We can make sleep appliances that holds your jaw forward so that your airway doesn't collapse and make that noise that no one's
Kevin (02:49):
Thrilled with the snoring noise.
Dr. Michelle (02:51):
And then we also have a laser technology that allows us to put laser energy into your soft palette and that it cuts down on the vibration, which is what makes the noise. So after a couple of treatments, the noise is really diminished, so it tightens up the connective tissue, which cuts down on the movement and also shrinks it up so that it's like a curtain in the back of your throat. So it raises the curtain up so that more air goes down and it's less noisy.
Kevin (03:22):
I would imagine when you were doing other work on people's mouths, you can kind of look back there and say, I bet this person is a snore.
Dr. Michelle (03:30):
There are definitely signs of snoring. Most people that snore and have an airway restriction grind their teeth, 60 to 70% of people that grind their teeth. We now know that it's really an airway issue.
Kevin (03:43):
What percentage of people you think who snore pretty heavily ultimately have sleep apnea?
Dr. Michelle (03:48):
About 70%. Right. And
Kevin (03:51):
Sleep apnea is scary, right? Because ultimately you could go into cardiac arrest, right? You're not breathing.
Dr. Michelle (03:59):
It drastically increases the risk of all cardiovascular issues. So heart attack, stroke, all of those things are really drastically increased by having any kind of airway restriction. And airway restrictions are highly hereditary. So if somebody in your family, especially a close relative has it, it's important to be aware of that. And if your dad died of a heart attack, good to get a sleep test. Sleep tests are so easy to get. Now. A home sleep test, it looks just like a high school class ring. I don't know if anybody listening knows what that means.
Kevin (04:40):
It's like a mood ring. Oh, probably don't know what that
Dr. Michelle (04:42):
Is. It looks like a big ring anywhere. It three or four nights and the data automatically comes to us. So we're looking at it in real time as it's rolling in. And then we have a consultation and talk about the results and then figure out some solutions. Obviously if you have high sleep apnea, then we do need to look at CCP a p machines and medical options.
Kevin (05:09):
Hey, if you're just tuning in, that's the voice of Dr. Michelle and she's here local, and of course you can connect with her and learn more about her by going to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. Jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. We're talking about sleeping one of the most important things that you can do for your body and some issues that come up with sleep, including snoring and sleep apnea and what you can do. So there's a lot of folks that are listening to us driving around right now that have in their extra bedroom closet a C-P-A-P machine, that beautiful thing that they strap onto your face. It makes you look like a monster, and they use it for about 10 days and then they store it away. We can help with that.
Dr. Michelle (05:47):
That is where a lot of them are. Yeah. Well, the great, I mean, a really good thing to do is we discuss, obviously if somebody had a past diagnosis and they're supposed to be wearing one and they're not, sometimes if it was long ago enough and they've lost a bunch of weight, then their diagnosis has changed for the better. So then what we do is get a current test on them and see where we are. Sometimes we have happy news that things are better. Nice. They've lost weight because most people that are heavy snores are aware of the fact that when their weight fluctuates, their snoring fluctuates. And then with CPAP machines too, this is good for anybody that's listening that has one, especially if it's in the closet. The mask technology has changed a lot. So a lot of times you can get a newer CPA machine and the pressure will fluctuate depending on what is needed, and you can often get a much better mask. The other thing about the dental sleep appliances is that because it holds your airway open, the appliance fits. Like if anybody's listening that's had a night guard before, it's like a top and bottom night guard that holds your jaw forward and that makes it so that the CPAP machine needs less pressure in order to stabilize your airway. So the appliance makes it more comfortable to wear a cpep machine and obviously doesn't allow you to grind your teeth, which helps protect your
Kevin (07:17):
Teeth. Very good. Alright. And wearing the appliance doesn't hurt. Some of us are big
Dr. Michelle (07:23):
Babies. Yeah. Well, a lot of the older appliances were really bulky, really uncomfortable. So there could be people listening too, that had a dental appliance for sleep made say 10 to 15 years ago and found that to be uncomfortable. The newer appliances, just because of the appliance technology, the way that they're made now are much less bulky, easier to wear, a lot more comfortable. And if you've had a night guard in the past and you weren't able to wear that, it's most likely you have a sleep issue and a traditional night guard you'll rip out of your mouth because it's not helping stabilize your airway and it's actually blocking your airway more so until you get a sleep appliance, which is top and bottom and again, less bulky and it stabilizes your airway, which you then are aware of somehow mentally you just know that it's more comfortable, you can breathe, then you'll leave it in and you'll want to have it in. Right.
Kevin (08:21):
Interesting. Well, if you have any questions about that snoring, sleep apnea, maybe you've had a sleep apnea diagnosis or you suspect you probably would get one. If you actually did see a doctor, a good first place to start would be Jax Beaches Family Dentistry. You can learn more by going to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. That's jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. When we come back, we'll learn more about the process, what's involved with it, what does it take, all that kind of good stuff. And we'll be right back. We're spending time. We talked to Michelle Hucke and today, I know normally we talk about teeth and pretty smiles and helping you eat whatever you would like to eat, that sort of thing. But today we're talking about sleeping because so many of you may not realize this, but yes, a dentist can help you with your sleeping issues, right, Dr. Michelle?
Dr. Michelle (09:11):
Yes, I can.
Kevin (09:12):
Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, probably 25, 30 years ago, a lot of our listeners were of an age where we were going to the dentist 30 years ago. That really would not have been an option, right?
Dr. Michelle (09:22):
Yeah, no, there are a lot of things going on in dentistry right now that we realize are sleep issue related. I've been a dentist for a while now. We're not going to talk about how many years
Kevin (09:34):
Child prodigy started at age 11
Dr. Michelle (09:37):
And I was in the era of, well, everything is all about your bite and your bite is important. And a lot of what we are seeing in people's mouths like wear and the recession of gums and breakdown of people's dentistry and cracking of teeth are really all related to sleep issues. And because we work in that space, we have different modalities that we can use to control all of it and to stabilize people's airways so they can sleep and get oxygen to their brain.
Kevin (10:13):
So often, of course, some of the most interesting conversations we have are off the air, but I was talking with Dr. Michelle off the air a little bit about how a lot of us come of a generation with headgear where we're trying to adjust our mouths and bites. I was one of those. My mouth was a mess and Dr. Michelle's my dentist, so she knows it's a mess. But I had the head good, it went around the top of your head and then it had the pole tension on the sides, and then I would have to hook 'em to the sides, pull it back, and I had to wear it all the time. So much. So I had to wear it at baseball practice, which
Dr. Michelle (10:43):
Yeah, I wore mine to school.
Kevin (10:45):
Yeah, exactly. But it turns out that that could have contributed to maybe people that went through that us having snoring issues
Dr. Michelle (10:57):
Back then. It was felt that, oh gosh, you have buck teeth, so we have to take the upper
Kevin (11:02):
Jaw overbite.
Dr. Michelle (11:03):
Yeah, we have to take the upper jaw and pull it backward. But the problem with that is when you pull the upper jaw backwards and then the lower jaw follows that causes your tongue and your palate to go into your airway, which is a primary contributor to snoring and your airway being blocked
Kevin (11:21):
Explains a lot of the difficulty I had at summer camp with the other campers. That's right. Waking up in the morning surrounded by juice boxes and fruit all around my head, and I was like, wow, why are they doing this? They liked me this much. Not exactly know. Even in high school, I remember I snorted so much at some camp event of some kind. Maybe it was geeky band camp or something that people were so angry at me, nobody would talk to me the next day because I kept the whole crowd up because guys would sleep in these big open rooms. Yeah, not so good. Not a good thing. No, no.
Dr. Michelle (11:57):
Snoring is bad.
Kevin (11:57):
How young can you treat somebody dealing with snoring?
Dr. Michelle (12:00):
We have a lot of appliances and things that we can do to help facilitate kids having their jaws developed properly on the front end instead of dealing with this now with adults on the backend. So when they're growing, we have appliances that help facilitate the jaw growth so that your jaw grows properly to begin with, which allows your tongue to end up in the proper right space and then not end up with that long palate that's down your throat.
Kevin (12:28):
Well, that sounds like a great thing to do, right? Yeah, that's great. The gift you can give your kids that they'll appreciate 50 years from now. Yeah,
Dr. Michelle (12:34):
It's like a sophisticated expander. We've all heard about palatal expanders for kids when they're trying to get their jaw to grow properly.
Kevin (12:43):
So people are listening to us right now, they are snoring. Perhaps they've received a diagnosis of sleep apnea and they're not using their ccp. A machine like 90% of people who have a CPA machine or they suspect they may have a sleep apnea issue, how does the process start? How do we get them to a better place?
Dr. Michelle (12:59):
So we were talking a little bit earlier about the CPAP machine. If people have a C-P-A-P machine, we retest them to see if their scores, numbers, and diagnosis has changed because if they've lost weight, then we may be able to help them with just an appliance. Now, before they really needed a CPA machine, and so we start with testing and then if they have say moderate apnea, then they generally need an appliance and the laser treatment. So we discuss different types of appliances. The patient kind of chooses what's the best fit for them, and then we generally a couple of weeks later deliver the appliance and then start their laser treatment. It's better to do it together.
Kevin (13:45):
And like you were telling me off the air, usually after a couple of months people come to you and say, Hey, I can finally sleep with my spouse again. Probably feel much better rested, right?
Dr. Michelle (13:56):
Oh yeah. It's amazing how much quicker they feel, how much better they feel so quickly.
Kevin (14:02):
People that are snores who sometimes either through a pillow or change in position can get a little bit better night's sleep will always rave about, boy, I slept so much better. You imagine if you sleep better all night long. That's right. Because you have the right equipment, right?
Dr. Michelle (14:16):
And sleep is complicated. So along with discussing the modalities that we are doing, I coordinate care with a sleep md, and then we have a woman that does tongue therapy. I know that sounds crazy, but you really do need generally a stronger tongue. If your tongue is lazy and it's not strong enough, it's going to fall back no matter what you do. So we start the tongue therapy right away also so I can coordinate care with her. If people are having jaw tension or pain, then I'm usually coordinating that with my acupuncturist who also does massage. So there are a lot of, it takes a village, right? There are a lot of people involved and we also have people use most people's apnea and snoring and everything is better. We all know this, right? If you're on your side or if your head is elevated, hence the fancy pillows, fancy bed raising. Oh
Kevin (15:11):
Yeah, the adjustable base mattress.
Dr. Michelle (15:13):
Yeah. All of that stuff is good and it helps people usually with reflux. Now if you have reflux and you're grinding your teeth, you have an airway issue usually because reflux is tied in with it. When the airway closes, it causes the acid acid reflux come up. Yeah,
Kevin (15:29):
Very good. Alright. If you have any of those issues, if any of this sounds like something that's impacting you or perhaps impacting a loved one, you can learn more by going to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com, jacksonvillebeachdentist.com, and there's a lot of information there about these sleep issues and what Dr. Michelle and her team can do for you. Alright, we're going to come back and wrap up our time with Dr. Michelle. So stay tuned.
(16:10):
Two minutes. No, actually, actually 10 minutes after two o'clock. Hey, we are spending time, we're live with Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke, she's with Jax Beaches Family Dentistry, and today we've been talking about sleep issues. A lot of us have them, whether it's snoring or sleep apnea, and she and her team can help. You can learn more by going to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. That's jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. From the point that somebody walks in and says, Hey, I'm snoring, or my spouse says they can't handle being in the same house with me during nighttime hours, how long does it take to help?
Dr. Michelle (16:43):
Well, when somebody is at our office and they're in the midst of what we call a sleep divorce, a lot of them just go ahead and start the laser treatment that we talked about that tightens up the soft palate that day. And generally after the second treatment, we do four treatments, three weeks apart, and they really notice a profound difference after the second treatment, which is three weeks later. So yeah, we can get started really quickly and then within about two weeks, I always recommend that people get the appliance and do the laser treatment. Within about two weeks we can deliver the appliance. So it moves along very quickly.
Kevin (17:24):
And if the snoring has progressed or it's the type of situation, perhaps it is sleep apnea, I would think after about a year or so of experiencing what you're talking about, bringing people through other health indicators, we get better too, right?
Dr. Michelle (17:37):
Oh, absolutely. It definitely helps with blood pressure and all those things. So also, I was talking earlier about how we coordinate care with a lot of other providers. I right away will send sleep test results and explain to their physician what we're doing on that that allows them to be in the loop, and that way they understand what's going on with their patient because sometimes they're struggling with diabetes and they're having trouble controlling their sugar, and so they need to know what's going on with their patient dentally and sleep apnea wise so that they're not chasing their tail. I had a patient in the other day who's diabetic and they're having trouble with their blood sugar and they have really terrible gum disease. So that's important for their physician to know about because you can't really control your blood sugar if you have bad gum disease doesn't work. It'd
Kevin (18:27):
Be interesting to work with you and your team on dealing with these sleep issues, snoring, sleep apnea, after you've just had a physical or something and go through this treatment, get it all figured out, and then a year later go back to the doctor and look at all those data. I think somebody would be a lot better off.
Dr. Michelle (18:43):
Oh, absolutely.
Kevin (18:44):
Yeah. And so we talk about this a lot with Dr. Michelle and we'll talk about it too in subsequent episodes that we spend with her though, about the connection between what goes on inside your mouth and what happens in the rest of your body,
Dr. Michelle (18:56):
Right? Yeah. They're actually connected.
Kevin (18:58):
They're incredibly connected. Yeah, it used to be. Well, yeah, you thought, well, the old expression, which you are, what you eat. Well, it's not just that. It's everything that goes into that process, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So hey, if you have any questions at all though about getting some help with sleeping issues, this is something that really is borderline epidemic, right?
Dr. Michelle (19:16):
It is an epidemic, yeah. It's connected well, and because then the other thing that we deal with too is making sure that people get with the dietician and control the inflammatory foods that they eat. And you definitely need to get below a certain BMI in order to help resolve the sleep issues. So yeah, it involves lots of people,
Kevin (19:38):
But the good news is it can be done. You can get some real relief, your life can get a whole lot better. And I know from personal experience that Dr. Michelle and her team will actually make it fun in the process.
Dr. Michelle (19:48):
Absolutely. Right? Yeah. We like to have fun.
Kevin (19:50):
Yeah, she's going to have fun and you're going to get to a much better place, and that's what this is all about. So anyway, to learn more, go to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com, that's jacksonvillebeachdentist.com, or just search for Dr. Michelle and she's all over Google and you'll be able to connect with her that way as well. Dr. Michelle, thanks for your time.
Dr. Michelle (20:09):
Great to see you.