At your next dental visit, your dentist might ask you questions about snoring, your sleep habits, and health problems you have. If so, it is because the dentist is trying to find out if you might have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a serious problem that should not be ignored, but many people do not even realize they have it. If your dentist suspects you might have this condition, you should consider seeking help for it. Here are two reasons you should never ignore this disorder.

It makes you lose sleep

Of all the things you do in life, sleep is one of the most important. Getting enough sleep at night is vital for your physical health and for emotional wellbeing. The problem with sleep apnea is that it prevents you from sleeping thoroughly. In fact, a person with sleep apnea will wake up many times in one night; however, they may never even know this is happening. Sleep apnea might not wake you up enough to remember waking up, but these small disturbances that happen over and over while you sleep will stop you from getting the sleep your body and mind needs.

Sleep apnea increases your risk of heart problems

One of the most important things to realize is the effects sleep apnea can have on your heart if you do not seek treatment for it. Sleep apnea forces you to wake up while you sleep, and this is primarily because it interferes with your breathing. You will actually stop breathing momentarily if you have untreated sleep apnea, and each time this occurs, it places pressure on your heart.

It is your brain that first detects you have stopped breathing, and your brain will then communicate to your heart to beat harder and faster. This will first lead to high blood pressure, and high blood pressure is a dangerous, yet silent, problem that can eventually lead to death. As your heart incurs all this extra pressure, it also creates a higher risk of developing heart disease. If you continue to live with this problem without treating it, you are likely to suffer from a heart attack.

There are a lot of other issues that untreated sleep apnea can cause, and you can prevent all of this by seeking help. You will need to undergo a sleep study to find out for sure if this is what you have. To learn more, talk to your dentist today. For more information, visit websites like http://silverstonefamilydental.com.