How Dentists Spot Sleep Apnea And Protect Your Dental Health

Snoring can feel like a harmless annoyance until you realize it may be the first sign your oxygen is dropping at night. We sit down in the studio and get very practical about the link between airway, sleep quality, and oral health, and why sleep apnea is often missed for years even when the clues are loud and consistent.

We walk through the red flags we listen for in the dental chair: chronic snoring, waking up over and over, gasping that a partner notices, and that frustrating pattern of getting seven or eight hours of “sleep” but still feeling drained the next day. Because many patients see their dentist twice a year, dental visits can become a powerful screening point for sleep apnea symptoms and overall wellness. We also explain why a real sleep study matters, what it measures, and how it helps separate obstructive sleep apnea from central sleep apnea so treatment decisions are based on data, not guesses.

From there, we connect the airway story to issues patients feel every day, including jaw clenching, teeth grinding, and jaw pain, plus how mouth breathing can dry out saliva and raise the risk of gum inflammation and faster dental breakdown over time. Dr. Stephen Blank shares how dentists evaluate airway anatomy, how jaw and tongue position can narrow breathing space, and how oral appliance therapy like a mandibular advancement device can help many obstructive cases, especially for patients who are CPAP intolerant. We also emphasize confirmation: adjust the appliance, then retest with a follow-up sleep study to see what’s truly working.

If you care about dental sleep medicine, sleep apnea treatment options, and protecting your long-term health, press play, subscribe, share this with someone who snores, and leave a review with your biggest sleep question.

To learn more about Dr. Stephen Blank visit:
https://www.PSLdentist.com
Dr. Stephen Blank, DDS
184 NW Central Park Plaza 
Port St. Lucie, FL, 34986
772-878-7348  

Transcript

Welcome And Big Topic Preview

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the PSL Dentist Podcast, where healthy smiles meet real talk. Hosted by Port St. Lucie's very own Dr. Stephen Blank, the one dentist who's been making the treasure coast smile for decades. From one-visted crowns to clear aligners, Botox, and even lifting threads, yep, your dentist does that too. So sit back, open wide, not literally fleet. And get ready to sink your teeth into today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

A look at how your airway, sleep quality, and oral health are more connected than most people realize. Welcome back, everyone. I am Frederick, co-host and producer in the studio with Dr. Stephen Blank, your Port St. Lucie dentist. Dr. Blank, how are things going for you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Good afternoon, Frederick.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

They're going wonderful. Nice, nice, excellent to hear. So, Dr. Blank, always great to be here with you. Can you tell your listeners how does sleep apnea relate to dental health?

Sleep Apnea Risks And Common Clues

SPEAKER_02 1:04

This is a great topic to discuss today because so many people have apnea issues and they're unaware of it, and they have no clue that their dentist may be a key to their treatment or a part of it, depending on the situation. Not all dentists treat apnea, but those that do focus on that and study it and have taken additional courses on that uh are trained and ready to go and help patients. Uh and and why is this important? Well, apnea is when people don't breathe well at night. There's a couple different categories we'll talk about in a minute. But um basically your your oxygen level goes down if you stop breathing, and that's measurable. So that's one of these things when they do sleep studies, where you go to a place or they hook equipment up to you at home and measure your sleeping, they can find that the levels go low. If you have any underlying heart disease that you were not aware of, that might be the last time you go to sleep. So for some people, this could be life-threatening, it could cause a heart attack or or other issues. So knowing about this is important. Mostly we hear people saying, I snore a lot, or somebody else says, I snore a lot. And that's the the tip of the iceberg. That's the first clue that we get. So in our health history and our intake, we ask patients, do you have trouble sleeping? Do you snore? Does somebody elbow you all night long and say, hey, be quiet? And the other one is if you sleep eight hours, seven, eight hours, are you tired the next day? Do you do you always like fall asleep and have difficulty? In fact, we have a questionnaire uh that's pretty standard in the medical and dental fields for determining uh uh your sleep or your your wellness in bed. Uh you know, do you fall asleep at traffic lights? Do you fall asleep watching television? Do you fall asleep reading a book? Uh do you have difficulty staying awake? Um do you sleep all night long or do you wake all the time? Some people do go to bed, but they don't get sleep. They say, Oh, I'm up every two or three hours, either because their mind is busy or if they're not breathing well, they may not know that, but then they gasp for air and that's an awakening moment. So these people have disruption in their sleep pattern, and that just affects your overall well-being, your health, your body, your mind, you're not as clear the next day. So that's how apnea has come to be something the dentists pay attention to.

Why Dentists Screen For Apnea

SPEAKER_02 3:44

And then the next question is what a dentist do? Why a dentist? Well, we see people twice a year, and often they skit see a physician only if they're having a problem. So it might be a couple of years between visits. We have that unique opportunity to check a patient and see what their airway is like and ask the appropriate questions to find out if there's something underlying.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Gotcha, gotcha.

Clenching Grinding And Airway Links

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Thank you so much for sharing some of the um symptoms that you look for um or the signs to diagnose someone with sleep apnea, like being tired even if they got seven, eight hours of sleep, or they're snoring. So, my follow-up question to you is are there any other signs? And then related to that, how does untreated sleep apnea contribute to issues like jaw clenching, grinding, or or jaw pain?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Very good. These are all tied together. Most people are just unaware that there's any connection of any sort. Patients with clenching grind often have an airway issue. And that means that the space down here for air to pass through is just not not open

Obstructive Vs Central Apnea

SPEAKER_02 4:52

enough. And there's a couple different types of apnea. The main two categories that that we talk about are obstructive sleep apnea. That's when the airway is blocked by either the soft tissues falling down or posterior or head and neck posture uh not being good to keep the airway open. Uh the type of pillow we sleep on, the the way we're sleeping, um that's obstructive apnea. The other type of and those are the kind the dentists can often treat depending on the shape of the airway. The other type of apnea is central apnea. That's when you just forget to breathe. So you're laying in bed in and out, in and out, and then nothing. And then 30 seconds later, big breath. And that's what the spouse will often report. They'll they'll say, Oh, he gasps every now and then. And that isn't a sign of apnea, but often there's no witness. So this is why sleep studies come into play. Uh, your medical doctor or your dentist can order a sleep study, and you're sent to a sleep center where they evaluate all sorts of parameters your heart rate, your blood pressure, uh, your oxygen levels, uh your brain activity, and then a physician that specializes in sleep care analyzes that data and writes a report. That's the report that's the golden standard. It tells us if it's central apnea or if it's obstructive apnea. Uh, and depending on the airway type, now I can make a decision. Can I help that person?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Gotcha, gotcha.

Mouth Breathing Dry Mouth Gum Damage

SPEAKER_01 6:32

So on that note, can sleep apnea the health of, say, someone's gums or contribute to the inflammation of or inflammation in the mouth?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Very good question. When when patients aren't breathing well, often it's because of other airway issues. They may have swollen tonsils where they just don't have a big opening, their sinuses can be inflamed and enlarged, allergies or just poor passageways, the way they formed. Uh, all sorts of things can contribute to that. Um and that allows if somebody breathes at night, ideally we're breathing through our nose, our lips are touching lightly, but our teeth are apart ever so slightly. We're not clenched together and we're nose breathing. When we breathe by mouth at night, uh now our mouth starts to dry out. The natural cleansing process, the saliva that flows through all the time that we swallow uh is drying up. And the bacteria that reside on our teeth, no matter how clean we get, there's always a little something. And some people don't get very clean. Uh now that same acid level or bacteria level on the gums and teeth can cause a lot more damage. So the same habits that got you to 30, 40 years old, from 40 to 60 or 60 to 80, all of a sudden things change because we change.

Jaw Tongue Shape And Blockage

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Can you tell us what role does say, like the position of the jaw or the tongue play in airway obstruction during sleep? And I guess this would fall under the obstructive uh sleep apnea category.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Absolutely. That's our specialty to find those situations. So some things that cause changes are jaw position. Some of that could do with orthodontics if teeth were were constricted or the the jaws uh just naturally didn't form as large as they could have when you were younger. Some of those are the people with crowded teeth. Um, some people just have bad luck. They get mommy-sized jaws and daddy-sized teeth and tongue, and things just don't fit as well. Um, if their uh uh tonsils are enlarged, if the lymph nodes in the back of your throat are swollen, there is no room for the tongue to go. So it falls backwards or it can block the airway, uh, all sorts of contributing factors. We look in the mouth and we look for the airway. And ear nose and throat doctors do this all the time, and we're looking at that little uvula that dang dangles down in the back of your mouth, a little funny thing that hangs down. And some people it's so easy to see. And their airway is wide open, they could swallow a ping pong ball. Other people, you wonder how they eat dinner because you look in and you just can't see that little thing. Their palate curves way, way down, and the airway is constricted, or they have enlarged tonsils, or their neck is a little beefier, and sometimes they're carrying a few extra pounds. Um, but it's not always a weight thing. I have plenty of skinny patients that can't breathe at night. So it's just an evaluation of the airway, how open is this? And there's actual devices that can measure that if we want to quantit quantitate it, uh, but mostly it's a visual for us. The ones that have uh an airway where I can see the back pretty good, and there's different categories that we rank that

Oral Appliances That Move Jaw Forward

SPEAKER_02 9:42

in. Those are the patients where we can make appliances for them to hold their lower jaw forward. When the lower jaw is held forward, it naturally brings the airway more open. I tell patients, act like the wicked witch of the west with your chin sticking out. And they put their chin way forward and it's opens that up a lot. You cannot hold it there all night long, though, because you go to sleep. So the appliances we make, and there's a bunch of different types, depending if they clench or grind their teeth or uh other factors, uh, they all do the similar goal of holding the mandible, the lower jaw forward and opening the airway. So that's our goal.

CPAP Intolerance And Retesting Results

SPEAKER_02 10:20

What I do with a lot of patients, they have the CPAP machine they've been given from a physician because they didn't work with the dentist yet, or they think that's the golden standard for everybody. But a lot of patients are CPAP intolerant. So I either can't wear them and they don't want to wear them. They don't want all the apparatus in the bedroom, or it keeps them awake. So if we can make them a dental appliance that holds their jaw forward and they can breathe at night, uh it's a wonderful thing. It frees them up from uh their appliance. And we test that. We don't just make these things, we place them and then they can return for another sleep study after we've adjusted the appliance a couple times and get them to an optimum state. And then we can see are they doing better with an appliance? Is it keeping them open as good as a CPAP machine, or do they need the machine?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Wonderful, wonderful. Thanks for breaking down all that so clearly and thoroughly, telling us about the um appliances you use to move the mandible forward, the wicked witch of the west analogy that you use. Thank you so much for sharing that. That was very informative. So thanks, Dr. Blank, uh, for breaking down the connection between sleep apnea

Wrap Up And How To Book

SPEAKER_01 11:32

and dental health. Uh, we do appreciate your insight. And for everyone else who's tuning in at home, thanks for joining the journey. And we'll see you all again next time.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Thank you for bringing up a very important subject for overall health.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

And thank you for explaining it to all of us. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

That's a wrap for the PSL Dentist Podcast, where smiles are brighter and laughter always cavity-free. To keep your smile in shape, call 772-878-7348 or visit psldentist.com to schedule your appointment with Dr. Stephen Blank, the one stop doc for smiles, beauty, and everything in between. Until next time, keep flossing, keep smiling, and keep listening.