A dentist explains how dental professionals can spot obstructive sleep apnea through mouth anatomy, and why sleep quality matters more than patients realize. Many people spend years fixing their gut and hormones while ignoring the airway problem upstream that's causing everything else.
People come to dentists and thinking we just fix teeth, but a lot of obstructive sleep apnea are diagnosed from the mouth. And you can see the tongue position, you can see the soft palate, you can see the nasal patency, you can see a lot in this upper upstream that Dr. Pompa always said. I have to give credit. The first time I heard he said, I'm like, oh my gosh, it makes so much sense. Upstream, downstream. People focus on downstream— thyroid, hormone, gut. People work on gut for a decade, not feeling better until the upstream is being clean up. For me, the, the home sleep test is something that every dentist should have in the office because I have patients that's seen so many different specialties. No one ever asks, how's your sleep at night?
