Dental News - 100 million patients suffer from sleep apnea over the holidays

Vocus/PRWEB

Wed. 15 December 2010

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MIAMI: The holiday season can be hard on one’s health, and people suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) feel it the most. Overeating and drinking too much add to the sleepy side effects of the holiday season. What happens to the 80 million individuals dangerously living undiagnosed with OSA? It’s a scary thought.

For those suffering with OSA, what happens to the body during sleep? Once an individual finally falls asleep, OSA robs the body of breath — a syndrome characterized by the repeated collapse of a person’s airway during sleep. As the oxygen levels drop, adrenaline and blood pressure surge. Eventually the deepening desperation for air provokes a momentary awakening — what sleep doctors term a micro-arousal.

This lasts just long enough for the apnea victim to suck in a lungful of air and re-saturate the bloodstream with oxygen, immediately slipping back into shallow, non restorative sleep. The individual runs the risk of not breathing for up to one minute, throw alcohol and over eating into the mix, and you’ve got a serious risk of not waking up.

Now. a diagnostic solution is easily available through Sleep Group Solutions (SGS) Home Sleep Test, and new iPhone/iPad app.

For those who are too busy for an OSA diagnosis at an overnight sleep center, Sleep Group Solutions offers its Home Sleep Test. The new method is simple. The patient receives a take home kit with instructions. The patient follows the instructions given by their physician, and the kit is returned to the doctor.

The results of the study are uploaded to a secure server, where the consumer never stays overnight at a sleep center, with costly repercussions.

Still too much work for the busy sleep sufferer? SGS takes it a step further and brings healthcare directly to the hands of the patient by offering an iPhone/iPad app where the sleep patterns can be recorded, a few screening questions asked, and information sent back automatically to SGS for an evaluation.

“The iPhone/iPad app and the Home Sleep Test are great steps forward in increasing awareness of sleep apnea and will result in an increased diagnosis and treatment of the disease,” said John Nadeau, vice president of SGS.

By participating in the Home Sleep Test and/or iPhone/iPad app, the patient has the ability to diagnose (HST) or screen (iPhone) OSA, and control it through a series of appliances, diagnostic devices and other sleep medicine methods.

OSA is a life-threatening disorder suffered by many millions of Americans. Cumulatively the cost of untreated sleep apnea to our society amounts to over $30 billion annually. This cost comes in the form of a twelvefold increase in auto accident risk, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and more.

Lack of awareness among both patients and physicians is the primary reason for low penetration of sleep apnea diagnosis as well as therapy. SGS’s new methods of detection make the process easier and is the first step in saving lives and promoting health.

Sleep Group Solutions is an airway diagnostic technology company serving the needs of physicians and dentists interested in screening, diagnosing and treating sleep apnea and other upper airway disorders. SGS offers the latest screening and diagnostic equipment solutions for patients who present with allergy, sinus congestion, rhinitis, deviated septum, nasal polyps, snoring and sleep apnea.

Most procedures are reimbursed by Medicare and private insurance. SGS offers the most comprehensive dental sleep medicine CE seminars in the industry focused on teaching dentists the protocols needed to make the treatment of snoring and sleep apnea part of their practice.

More information is available from Sleep Group Solutions.

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