Dentist as Destiny Part 4: Why the heck is my dentist asking about my snoring?

The dentist you choose will shape your destiny. Here are Parts 1, 2, and 3 if you’d like to read them. 

This is Part 4 of 8. Today, we talk about your sleep.

Years ago, my wife was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Not long after, so was I.

I’d been a dentist for decades by then, and I still didn’t catch it. Not in her, and not in myself. Two medical professionals under one roof, and we’d both been living with it for years without knowing. 

That diagnosis is the reason I’ve spent every year since learning everything I could about how we breathe while we sleep. It’s also why I can say this with zero judgment: if you snore, you’re not the exception. You’re the person I used to be.

If you’re already snoring, the problem wasn’t caught early enough. Snoring is never just a quirk of feeling “extra tired.” Snoring tell us that you are struggling to breathe at night and that damage is being done.

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden, publishing in the journal Mitochondrion, looked at what snoring vibrations do to muscle, then checked their findings against the airway muscles of actual snorers and people with sleep apnea. 

What they found: the vibrations damage the mitochondria (those tiny energy factories inside the muscle cells) leaving those muscles unable to make energy on demand. And the muscles this happens to are the exact ones whose job is to hold your airway open while you sleep.

So snoring weakens the muscle, so the weaker muscle collapses more easily, and the collapse makes for more snoring. Think of the vibration injury that turns up in people who run jackhammers for a living.

When you sleep with your mouth open, two things happen at once. Your saliva production slows way down, and hours of dry, unfiltered air go over the back of your throat. Your nose was built to warm, filter, and humidify every breath, but your mouth was not. So the tissue dries out and dry airway tissue gets irritated, inflamed, and swollen.

Those dried-out surfaces, which normally slide apart easily after a snore, start to cling instead, becoming stickier and slower to reopen. Swollen tissue narrows the airway, a narrower airway means more resistance, and more resistance means more vibration and more collapse.

Which brings us to our two people…one who chose a regular dentist and the other who chose a functional dentist.

The first person grinds their teeth at night, so their dentist crowns the worn-down tooth, hands over a night guard, and never asks why a grown adult is grinding their enamel to nubs. The airway continues to collapse every night, over decades, and the damage from sleep apnea to the brain and whole body compounds like high interest debt.

The second person has a dentist who sees that same worn enamel and thinks: this isn’t a grinding problem, this is a breathing problem. The functional dentist sees grinding, a scalloped tongue, dry mouth, a small crowded jaw and asks what’s happening while you sleep, gets you connected to the best ENT in the area, and sets you up with your first myofunctional therapy appointment. This person treats the root cause of their snoring, and better quality sleep compounds, paying dividends throughout their life.

Different dentist, different destiny.

Snoring might be the easiest warning sign in all of medicine. And what do we do with it? We tease the snorer at breakfast, kick them out of bed, or reach for earplugs. If you or someone you love snores, the kindest thing you can do is take action.

So if it were me, here’s where I’d start:

1. Get the nose working again. If you can breathe well through your nose, gentle mouth tape at night can be a revelation, but only if your nose is clear. If it isn’t, fixing that comes first. It’s the cheapest way to take mouth breathing off the table.
2. Measure the snore instead of dismissing it. Record a night on your phone, or use whatever watch or ring you already wear. You’re listening for any noises, including snoring, gasping, or pauses in breathing, then bring what you find to a professional.
3. See a dentist who actually screens your airway. Many don’t. If yours has never asked about your sleep or your snoring, find one who will — my Functional Dentist Directory is a place to start. As I learned the hard way, a dentist is often the first person who can catch this.

Next week: the connection nobody warns couples about when they’re trying to start a family.

P.S. A few things I use to keep my mouth clean and oral microbiome balanced: 

• this toothpaste
• this oil-pulling blend instead of mouthwash
• this green tea
• these enzymes with meals
• this magnesium 1-2 hours before bed