Get a great night’s sleep again
The sleep apnea is a huge problem in the United States. One that’s just on the tip of people understanding. It’s something where people … Sometimes it’s snoring. We know that snoring is pathologic. It’s not normal to snore, and if they are snoring, there are periods of time where you’re not getting oxygen to the body. We actually have patients that come in where the spouses say I can’t sleep at night, my spouse is keeping me up. We have some very convenient home testing units that the person can take home in the privacy of their own home, wear that for an evening and bring it back in.
We plug it in, it goes to a sleep lab, and it prints out a report. We get a variety of different things. We get … If they are snoring, what percentage of time they’re snoring, what decibel level, whether it’s 30, 40, 50 decibels. We get whether they do stop breathing. The apnea-hypopnea index, whether they stop breathing, how many times they stop breathing.
I actually, personally, am one that my wife said, ”You’re treating all these patients, and I hear you kind of snore every once in a while.” I went home, and I tested for it. Came back, and it was a mild sleep apnea, which a lot of them that we treat are mild. I wasn’t really aware of it because it didn’t bother me. The person that’s snoring, it never bothers. It’s always the other person. My wife is very thankful that I wear my sleep appliance now. She gets a quiet night, a silent night, I should say here, but I feel more rested. Many people that come in that do snore and do have some obstructive sleep apnea are people that can be real tired during the day. Even though they’re sleeping, they’re not getting a good quality sleep.
It’s been fantastic, being able to provide that service for patients and helping so many different patients with that.