Mouth Sores, sensitive tongue and irritation to spicy foods from CPAP use

Lou saks: "ARE THERE MOUTH PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BIPAP USE? My tongue and mouth have become sensitive. irritated.causing spicy foods to be difficult to eat. Do I need to see a doctor, and how do I end this problem?"

Dr Shapira response: LOU,

THE PROBLEM COULD BE ONE OF SEVERAL INCLUDING A YEAST INFECTION IN YOUR MOUTH. I HAVE HAD MANY PATIENTS COMPLAIN OF THIS TYPE OF PROBLEM WITH CPAP USE AND ON OCCASION WITH ORAL APPLIANCE USE.

SEE YOUR DOCTOR AND/OR DENTIST WITH YOUR CONCERNS FIRST.

IF NOTHING IS FOUND THERE IS AN EXCELLENT PERSCRIPTION PRODUCT CALLED GELCLAIR THAT CAN USUALLY ELIMINATE THAT TYPE OF PROBLEM.

IT IS DESIGNED TO BE DILUTED FOR SORES (MUCOSITIS) IN THE MOUTH FROM CHEMOTHERAPY BUT CAN BE USED FULL STRENGTH IN SMALL AMOUNTS (OFF LABEL) TO PROTECT THE ORAL TISSUES.

THE BIGGEST COMPLAINT I HAVE HEARD IS IT TASTES LIKE BLACK LICORICE, SOME PATIENTS CALL IT A "MIRACLE CURE"

THESE SYMPTOMS CAN ALSO BE RELATED TO VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES AND/OR ALLERGIES.

Stopping CPAP Treatment Leads to Rapid Recurrence of Sleep Apnea Symptoms

According to an article in press at the American Thoracic Society, removing CPAP treatment quickly leads to a return of the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. The study recruited known sufferers of obstructive sleep apnea who were currently undergoing treatment using CPAP. These patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: either they would continue treatment or they would have it reduced to a non-therapeutic level. Patients underwent polysomnograms at both the beginning of the study and after two weeks, along with a battery of tests designed to detect other dangerous effects of sleep apnea.

Patients saw an increase in apneic events and oxygen desaturations during the study period. They also saw a significant recurrence of markers for other dangers of sleep apnea, most notably a negative impact on the cardiovascular system. According to the lead researcher on the study, “We have shown that CPAP withdrawal leads to a return of OSA within the first night off CPAP.”

This means that periodic compliance or even compliance with CPAP treatment on most nights is insufficient for treatment of the condition and makes it even more imperative that patients be prescribed an appropriate sleep apnea treatment they can comply with when diagnosed with sleep apnea, whether this is CPAP, dental appliances, surgery, or a combination of treatments.

To learn more about your full range of treatment options for sleep apnea, please contact a local sleep dentist today.

New Study Confirms Sleep Apnea-Dementia Connection

On this blog, we have long been warning about the link between sleep apnea and dementia, including the fact that 70-80% of dementia sufferers have sleep apnea as well, and that treating sleep apnea often helps improve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Now a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that connection. Using a larger (but also significantly older) study population than previous studies, this new report shows that sleep apnea may double your risk of dementia.

This study looked at nearly 300 women with a mean age of 82, and looked at the presence of dementia in the two sub-populations of women with sleep-disordered breathing and women without sleep disordered breathing. Overall, any form of sleep-disordered breathing increased the risk of dementia or other cognitive impairment by about 85%. Further, more than 15 apneic or hypopneic events per hour were associated with a 70% increase in the risk of cognitive impairment or dementia, and people who spent more than 7% of their sleep time in apnea or hypopnea had more than double the risk of suffering from dementia.

Sleep apnea treatment that is comfortable and effective is essential for patients of all ages, from children to the elderly. If you or a relative is suffering from sleep apnea, it is crucial that you learn about your treatment options today.

To learn about all your sleep apnea treatment options, please contact a sleep dentist today.

Headaches and Sleep Disorders: New article in Cephalgia. Learn how Neuromuscular Dentistry and Sleep Dentistry can help relieve these problems.

A new article in Cephalgia discusses the comorbidities of sleep and headache. It is well established that the two most commmon causes of "Morning Headache" are TMJ disorders and Sleep Apnea. There is an excellent paper fron the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute on the relation of these two disorders. The paper "CARDIOVASCULAR AND SLEEP-RELATED CONSEQUENCES OF TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS" can be found at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/tmj_wksp.pdf

The article in Cephalgia stated
Adults with severe headache are at significantly higher risk of also suffering from sleep problems, when compared with the general population, regardless of specific headache type. Optimal treatment of headache must include investigation for sleep disorders and vice versa."

The two primary sleep disorders associated with headache in my experience are sleep apnea and maintenance insomnia. Maintenance insomnia is usually the result of sleep apnea/ UARS (upper airway resistance syndrome) or restless legs (periodic leg movements in sleep PLMS)

Patients pesenting with severe stree frequently have sleep onset insomnia. Chronic pain frequently leads to stress(cortisol) disorders.

Treatment of Sleep Apnea is considered the Gold Standard for Sleep Apnea but most patients do not tolerate treat and abandon it completely (up to 60%) or more commonly use it only a few hours a night which is leaves significant residual disease and risks of cardiovascular disease, excessive daytime sleepiness, tiredness, headaches and migraines.

An excellent alternative treatment for sleep apnea is an oral appliance (http://www.ihatecpap.com) It is extremely effective for Upper Airway Resistances Syndrome, Snoring Arousals, and mild to moderate sleep apnea. It has been shown to be effective in severe sleep apnea but is usually not effectively in the morbidly obese. Morbidily obese patients with headaches and migraines are probably CPAP candidates but oral appliance therapy can be used if they do not tolerate CPAP.

Treatment of Sleep Disordered Breathing can be remrkably effective in treating many types of headaches, especially morning headaches. Oral Appliances are preferred by the majority patients over CPAP when they are offered a choice. A side effect of oral appliance therapy is bite changes. Exercises taught to patients can prevent most changes but many patients chose not to do the exercises. The reason is that when the jaw is advanced for 8 hours it "heals" in this new position frequently eliminating headaches and migraines. While dentists treating sleep apnea with oral appliances usually try to prevent bite changes dentists treating patients for TMJ disorders (TMD) chronic tension headaches and migraines actually welcome bite changes.

Daytime headaches are very effectively treated with a different type of oral appliance called a neuromuscular orthotic. If the headaches are eliminated a second phase of treatment can make these changes permanent. Understanding that TMD and Sleep Apnea are different faces of the same structural/developmental disorder.

Another pertinent and timely study J Headache Pain. 2011 Aug 17. "Clinical features of headache patients with fibromyalgia comorbidity." looks at chronic heqdaches and fibromyalgia comorbidities with tension headache, chronic daily headacahe and migraine. These are comorbidities to TMJ disorders (TMD) and problems of the Trigeminal Nervous system that is over one half of the total input to the brain.

Sleep disorders as well as tension-type headaches, chronic daily headaches and fibromyalgia can all be substantially improved in most patients with various types of oral orthopedic appliances that not only alter posture and airway but can change the autonomic overload from noxious stimuli into the trigeminal system. One appliance is specifically approved for migraine prevention.




Cephalalgia. 2011 Apr;31(6):648-53. Epub 2011 Jan 10.
Headaches and sleep problems among adults in the United States: findings from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication study.
Lateef T, Swanson S, Cui L, Nelson K, Nakamura E, Merikangas K.
Source

National Institute of Mental Health, USA. TLateef@cnmc.org
Abstract
BACKGROUND:

Several studies have demonstrated an association between headache and disturbed sleep. None have examined this association across the headache spectrum. Our goal was to determine whether migraine and migraine with aura differ from nonmigraine headache in terms of associated insomnia complaints or severity of sleep problems.
METHODS:

A probability sample of US adults was used. A structured interview administered by trained interviewers was used. Diagnostic criteria for migraine and migraine with aura were based on the International Headache Society classification. The presence or absence of four forms of sleep disturbance associated with an insomnia diagnosis was ascertained.
RESULTS:

There was a significant association between frequent severe headache, including migraine with and without aura, and disordered sleep. Adults with headache reported more frequently difficulty initiating sleep (odds ratio [confidence interval] = 2.0 [1.6-2.5]), difficulty staying asleep (2.5 [2.1-3]), early morning awakening (2.0 [1.7-2.5]) and daytime fatigue (2.6 [2.2-3.2]) and also were more than twice as likely to report three or more of these symptoms(2.5 [2-3.1]) compared to the individuals without headache.
DISCUSSION:

Adults with severe headache are at significantly higher risk of also suffering from sleep problems, when compared with the general population, regardless of specific headache type. Optimal treatment of headache must include investigation for sleep disorders and vice versa.

PubMed abstracts below:

Comment in * Cephalalgia. 2011 Apr;31(6):643-4.

J Headache Pain. 2011 Aug 17. [Epub ahead of print]
Clinical features of headache patients with fibromyalgia comorbidity.
de Tommaso M, Federici A, Serpino C, Vecchio E, Franco G, Sardaro M, Delussi M, Livrea P.
Source

Neurophysiopathology of Pain Unit, Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences Department, Medical Faculty, Policlinico General Hospital, Aldo Moro University, Neurological Building, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy, m.detommaso@neurol.uniba.it.
Abstract

Our previous study assessed the prevalence of fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome in migraine and tension-type headache. We aimed to update our previous results, considering a larger cohort of primary headache patients who came for the first time at our tertiary headache ambulatory. A consecutive sample of 1,123 patients was screened. Frequency of FM in the main groups and types of primary headaches; discriminating factor for FM comorbidity derived from headache frequency and duration, age, anxiety, depression, headache disability, allodynia, pericranial tenderness, fatigue, quality of life and sleep, and probability of FM membership in groups; and types of primary headaches were assessed. FM was present in 174 among a total of 889 included patients. It prevailed in the tension-type headache main group (35%, p < 0.0001) and chronic tension-type headache subtype (44.3%, p < 0.0001). Headache frequency, anxiety, pericranial tenderness, poor sleep quality, and physical disability were the best discriminating variables for FM comorbidity, with 81.2% sensitivity. Patients presenting with chronic migraine and chronic tension-type headache had a higher probability of sharing the FM profile (Bonferroni test, p < 0.01). A phenotypic profile where headache frequency concurs with anxiety, sleep disturbance, and pericranial tenderness should be individuated to detect the development of diffuse pain in headache patients.

PMID:
21847547
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Labels: chronic daily headaches, dental sleep medicine, fibromyalgia tension type headaches, headaches migraines, insomnia migraines, migraines sleep, sleep apnea migraines

posted by Dr Shapira at 2:42 PM