A range of sleep problems, such as snoring and insomnia are signs of a sleep disorder called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea has a major impact on ones oral health and dental problems can also be caused. There is definitely a relevant connection between sleep apnea and your oral health.

What causes sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is caused due to tissue collapse in the airway which is due to weak airway muscles. A larger tongue, overweight, and other factors can also cause sleep apnea. Sleep apnea disturbs the sleep cycle and saps the daytime energy while causing decrease in mental performance and long term health.

What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?

The common symptoms of sleep apnea include reduced or absent breathing, frequent and loud snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness, decreased attention, forgetfulness, dry mouth, headache, frequent urination during night, decreased libido.

In addition to above symptoms sleep apnea in women causes depression, anxiety, insomnia, frequent wakefulness etc.

What are the risk factors for sleep apnea?

The major risk factors for sleep apnea are being overweight, a family history of snoring, being male, being over 40 years, being post-menopausal in women, a large neck, large tonsils or a large tongue, a small jaw bone and nasal sinusitis.

What is the connection between sleep apnea and oral health?

A good quality sleep always keeps you healthy and reduces the chances of bad breath, mouth ulcers, and other gum diseases. Major dental problem associated with sleep apnea is TMJ disorder, bruxism and mouth breathing.

What is TMJ disorder?

Temporomandibular joint disorder and sleep apnea go hand-in-hand. The TMJ connects the lower jaw to the upper jaw and there are two TMJ joints one on each side of the face. The symptoms of TMJ include jaw pain, head, neck and ear  pain, problem chewing, jaw joints that make clicking sounds and sometimes locked jaw which disables opening and closing of mouth. People with sleep apnea are at three times more risk to develop TMJ.

Bruxism

Bruxism is also known as teeth grinding or clenching of the jaw. White it can happen anytime, it mostly happens during a person’s sleep. Bruxism affects good sleep, causes headaches and neck and jaw pain. Bruxism is caused due to uncontrolled and involuntary movement of the jaw during the sleep and hence considered sleep related condition. It also causes teeth loss, cracked and chipped teeth surfaces and sometimes broken teeth.

Mouth Breathing

Another effect of sleep apnea is a propensity to breathe through the mouth or mouth breathing. It results in proclamation of teeth (malocclusion) dry mouth, tooth decay, plaque, mouth sores, gingivitis and periodontal disease.

What is the treatment?

When a dentist detects a dental problem related to sleep apnea, the medical advice would be to alleviate dental symptoms through certain behaviour modifications including improvement of sleep quality. The condition can also be managing through dental health improvement, orthodontic treatments and repair of the problems along with treatment for dry mouth. A dental mouthpiece (splint) is suggested to cut down risks of damage through grinding and clenching of the teeth.

Usually when abnormal cells develop and start spreading in the cervix, which is the lower part of the uterus it is known as cervical cancer. The most intriguing aspect of this cancer is that most of the cervical cancer cases are caused by a type of virus. When diagnosed early, cervical cancer is highly curable.

What are the symptoms?

The disadvantage is that when cervical cells first turn abnormal, there are hardly any signs or symptoms. Only as the cancer progresses, do symptoms appear like unusual vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding in-between periods, bleeding after menopause and bleeding or pain during sex.

Causes of Cervical Cancer

Human papillomavirus or HPV is a large group of viruses, out of which 40 types can infect the genital areas and some of them have the potency to cause cervical cancer.

HPV infection of the genital area is a common occurrence which will usually clear on its own. Sometimes one of these infections turns chronic and causes the changes in the cells leading to cervical cancer. It is observed that over 90% of cervical cancer is caused mainly by HPV.

Who are at risk of Cervical Cancer?

An HPV infection as mentioned earlier is a very common occurrence and both men and women who have had sex anytime are prone to be infected at some point in life. HPV has a tendency to linger undetected and it is possible that a person carries the infection for years together after a sexual contact.

Condoms are the best protection against HPV; they lower the risk of contracting the virus but are not assured protection. HPV can also cause cancerous growth in the vulva, vagina, penis and anal and oral parts in both sexes.

What raises the risk?

Your genetic make-up and race plays an important part in raising the risk. The risk is also higher in those who smoke, have number of children continuously, use birth control pills for a long time or are HIV positive.

How is cervical cancer detected?

A common test for detecting the presence of cervical cancer is Pap Test. It is one of the most successful tests, where a swab of the cervix can reveal abnormal cells. The early these abnormal cells are detected the better, for then treatment can be taken to prevent cancer. Regular Pap test is required for women from age of 21. If you skip tests then it can raise the risks for cervical cancer.

Doctors may also use colposcopy, examination with a lighted magnifying device. They can take a sample of the tissue and if abnormal cells are found then they can be removed or destroyed thus preventing them from progressing to cancer.

Stages of cervical cancer

There are several stages to the growth and advancement of cervical cancer. At Stage 0 the cancer cells are only on the surface of the cervix. At Stage I the cancer turn more invasive and it grows beyond the cervix and uterus but would not have spread to the walls of the pelvis. In Stage II, the cancer spreads beyond the cervix and uterus and possibly to nearby healthy tissues.

Stage III, the tumour extends to the lower part of the vagina and sometimes blocks urine out flow. In Stage IV, it is in an advanced stage and the cancer spreads to nearby organs of the body.

What are the treatments?

Before the cancer reaches stage II, the abnormal tissues can be detected and remove surgically. The treatment can be simple or more complex like radical hysterectomy that removes the cervix and the uterus along with some nearby tissues. The cancer is also treated with radiation and chemo therapies.

Among men, the sort of person who is likely to get a hernia is not necessarily the one who lifts a lot of heavy weights. A hernia can occur just like that when you exercise, cough, strain on your toilet or even as a result of lively sex life.

It is to be noted that hernias occur due to muscle weakness, often near the abdomen area. Hernias occur due to weakness of the cavity wall. These points get weak when there is a natural gap due to a blood vessel passing by or when there is a digestive tube in that place, it can also be due to some sort of scar tissue.

Hernia is first felt when you get a feeling like something has just popped in your belly area or something gave way suddenly.

What are the types of hernia?

A hernia is usually named based on its location in the body.

Inguinal Hernia

These are the common type of hernias. The inguinal canal is where the testes descend before birth. This canal has the spermatic cord and blood vessels. When an inguinal hernia occurs, part of the intestine juts down the canal into the scrotum.

Umbilical Hernia

An umbilical hernia is caused when the abdominal wall gets weakened in the umbilical cord area. This mostly occurs in children.

Femoral Hernia

The femoral hernia occurs when part of the intestine protrudes through the femoral canal and then juts into the top of the thigh.  The femoral canal is where the main blood vessel passes into the legs.

Epigastria Hernia

This type of hernia occurs when fat or sometimes intestine protrudes through the abdominal wall between the navel and the breastbone.

Ventral Hernia

This is a hernia that occurs in the abdominal wall which is weakened due to scar tissue and this could be due to a surgery or a trauma.

Obturator Hernia

This type of hernia occurs when a part of the stomach juts through the gap between the bones of the front pelvis.

Hiatus Hernia

When the upper part of the stomach protrudes through the diaphragm usually through the esophagus opening.

What causes hernia?

With the exception of a hernia caused by complications due to a surgery, in most hernia cases there is no apparent reason. But the risk of hernia does increase with age and occurs more in men than in women. Activities and medical problems that increase pressure on the abdominal wall usually leads to hernia.

The causes may include, straining on the toilet, persistent cough, cystic fibrosis, enlarged prostate, straining during urination, obesity, lifting heavy weights, abdominal fluid, peritoneal dialysis, poor nutrition, smoking, undue physical exertion and undescended testicles.

What are the treatments for hernia?

Open or laparoscopic surgery is the remedy and found to be greatly successful both in children and adults.