7 procedures that can affect the way you breathe and sleep

[needzzzzs]

This is a post by Dr. Steven Park, well known to CPAPTalkers, which was picked up by KevinMD, an excellent medical blog.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/04/7-p ... sleep.html

How many of us can probably trace our sleep apnea to one of these?

I can -- I did have teeth removed for braces many years ago.

Debbie

[ladyhen]

Very interesting.

I have an overbite, never got wisdom teeth and have low progesterone.

[robysue]

So I can add this to my already long list of things that depress me about my apnea diagnosis: four teeth pulled for braces (not counting the one that was dug out of the middle of the roof of my mouth before it could come through and create problems) and several years of headgear wearing to correct a badly mismatched mouth without enough room for my teeth.

Wisdom teeth? Two never even formed in my mouth. Two were severely and completely impacted: The oral surgeon who removed them some 28 years ago remarked he'd never had to put three stitches in an impacted wisdom tooth extraction before.

[Hosehead4ever]

Hysterectomy
All four wisdom teeth removed and an incisor to make room for other teeth.

My apnea got worse after having my tongue's very short frenulum removed.

[Muse-Inc]

Interesting. All 4 wisdom teeth came in my small jaw sideways, became severely infected, hospitalized for removal, bleed profusely, woke up with ice packs around my jaw and propped up -- they'd dislocated my jaw to get the teeth removed in pieces. Horrible experience. In my late 20s, I wore a bite plate fashioned by my dentist (one of the first in the city to study how to do this) to treat my TMJ probs, likely from the dislocated jaw...it worked, moved my lower jaw forward. After 24 months of continous wear 'cept for eating and periodic adjustments, the move was permanent tho my dentist thought I'd have to wear it serveral nights/wk to remind my muscles to stay in the new alignment. That was many yrs ago.

A yr later, I got tonsillitis (yrly occurrence) and after 3 months ended up with a systemic infection, hospitalized for adenoid+tonsillectory and use of antibiotics that successfully killed what I had and could only use in-hospital at the time. I bled so much, they put me back under for surgical packing and gave me blood. A wk or so after release and still with stitches, my gym coach insists I run laps even knowing I'd had surgery -- I was too naive to know I could refuse -- I popped stitches and began bleeding (ugh, I felt so bad at the time that I didn't know I was bleeding out my mouth and down my chin)...hadda have coagulant therapy that night to get the bleeding to stop.

A yr later I had unsuccessful surgery to remove a perm tooth that was lodged in my cheekbone or so it looked on the X-rays. It never bothered me, so it sat undistubed for yrs. Many, many yrs later, I had oral surgery to remove that durned tooth that had gone vertical and was attempting to erupt from my sinus cavity (then we learned why I had chronic sinusitis and frequent infections). Followed by a root canal, abcess, then infection above the root canal...all requiring surgery the yr before I gained 50#s for no apparent reason...hello apnea.

[Slinky]

Whew!!! You sure went thru the ringer w/your "fangs", Muse!!! It sounds like your "pearly whites" were trying to kill you.

[sleepydawn]

I had at least 4 teeth removed at once when I was a child. I do not have implants but I have a large chest and have needed to sleep on my back since I was a teenager.

[Muse-Inc]

Whew!!! You sure went thru the ringer w/your "fangs", Muse!!! It sounds like your "pearly whites" were trying to kill you.

Sure seemed like it! And I had a dental phobia before all that..afterwards, it became a nightmare going to the dentist.

[70sSanO]

Well my favorite is "any type of surgery."

That sort of leaves it wide open for most people.

John

[Mr Bill]

The 'any type of surgery' category intrigues me. I had knee surgery in 2000. I woke telling the nurse I was not breathing. They kept telling me my blood oxygen was fine but I was sure I was not getting enough air. I kept gasping for air and having that feeling that I was suffocating. When they cranked the bed up to partial sitting, it got better. That was my third surgery and I never had that reaction before; but I probably did have GERD. Fast forward 10 years later, and I have severe central sleep apnea. Oddly, almost exactly a year before, I started sleeping on my back to relieve GERD. Most of my sleep problems are CSA related, but there is definitely an OSA component.

I just keep wondering if there is a causal effect between GERD and CSA.