Snoring and children often go hand in hand, as kids experience bouts of snoring related to colds or other issues, such as seasonal allergies. While temporary snoring isn’t cause for concern, consistent snoring might be.
Chronic snoring is often part of a larger problem known as sleep-disordered breathing, which includes sleep apnea. One study reports that up to 15% of kids in the United States have sleep-disordered breathing, yet 90% go undiagnosed, and that’s potentially problematic.
As a specialist in pediatric dentistry, Dr. Robert F. Wilcox understands all too well how sleep apnea can affect kids during their developmental years.
To that end, we outline a few key points about pediatric sleep apnea, why treating it is essential, and how we can help your child breathe more easily at night.
With sleep apnea, soft tissues at the back of your child’s throat relax to the point of collapse during the night, blocking their airways. When this happens, your child’s brain rouses them just enough for them to clear their throat so they can breathe again.
If that happened once or twice during the night, we wouldn’t even be discussing this as a problem. The reality is that it can occur dozens of times each hour and, as you might imagine, dramatically disrupt their sleep.
The biggest sign of sleep apnea is snoring. Sleep apnea-related snoring isn’t a soft sound that follows breathing, but disruptive snorting, choking, or coughing noises throughout the night.
These sounds are often preceded by silence because your child’s airways are blocked and they’re not breathing.
Any person who develops sleep-disordered breathing is at risk of health complications, but disrupted sleep in kids is more serious since they’re in their developmental stage.
Good, restorative sleep is essential for developing children, who require more of it than adults — younger kids need 9-13 hours, while teens should get 8-10 hours.
When kids have sleep apnea, they’re likely not getting this sleep, which places them at risk for:
The potential for serious consequences underscores the importance of treating sleep apnea.
If we find that your child has pediatric sleep apnea, we can treat it in several ways, such as:
Certain lifestyle changes can also help with sleep apnea, namely, weight loss. Excess weight is one of the top risk factors for sleep apnea — 30%-60% of teens with sleep apnea also have obesity. (The link is due to more fatty tissue at the back of the throat associated with obesity.)
If you suspect that your child has sleep apnea, act quickly, and we can help guide your next steps. As specialists in pediatric oral health, we routinely help kids with sleep apnea, and we’re confident we can help your child get the sleep they need to support their development.
To set up your sleep apnea consultation, we invite you to contact Robert F. Wilcox, DMD, PC, in Butte, Montana, today to request an appointment.
