All forms of sleep apnea result in repeated pauses in your breathing during sleep. These pauses can occur anywhere between five to upwards of thirty times an hour. However, what is different is the reasons for the pauses.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)—the throat muscles and mouth tissues relax during rest to the point they collapse into the airway which restricts airflow. As a defense, the brain jolts you awake so that you can breathe properly. This is the most common form of sleep apnea and treatment is geared towards removing the obstruction.
Central Sleep Apnea (CSA)—the brain doesn’t send the correct signal to the body to breathe which means patients aren’t breathing as normal. The brain will jolt you awake so that you can resume breathing as a defense. This is a less common type of sleep apnea and it usually develops due to an underlying issue and thus cannot be treated by a dentist. Treatments will be aimed at treating the underlying cause.
Mixed (Complex) Sleep Apnea (MSA)—as the name suggests, this type of sleep apnea is complex because patients exhibit a combination of symptoms from both OSA and CSA. Your treatment plan may consist of treating underlying conditions while preventing obstructions in the throat.