Episode 1: Why So Many Women Miss Sleep Apnea Signs

You can do everything “right” and still wake up exhausted, headachy, and foggy and it might not be menopause at all. We’re pulling back the curtain on obstructive sleep apnea in women over 50, a condition that’s massively underdiagnosed because many women don’t fit the stereotype of loud snoring and obvious pauses in breathing.

I’m joined by my personal physician, Dr. Cannon, a dentist with deep training in dental sleep medicine, to explain what’s really happening in the body at night. We talk about why the tongue is often the hidden driver of airway collapse during REM sleep, how women can subconsciously fight to keep their airway open, and why that “fight” can show up as TMJ pain, teeth grinding, neck tension, reflux, and morning migraines. We also dig into why oxygen saturation drops matter for brain health and cardiovascular risk, even when sleep apnea is labelled mild.

We compare common treatment paths, including CPAP, Inspire, and oral appliance therapy, and Dr. Cannon walks through how a custom dental device gently brings the lower jaw forward to keep the airway open. You’ll also hear how home sleep testing has changed the game, making it easier to get real answers without an overnight lab stay. Finally, we unpack the two-way link between sleep apnea and weight gain through stress hormones like cortisol, and where GLP medications fit into the bigger picture.

If you’ve been blaming “this stage of life” for relentless fatigue, this conversation can help you spot the real signs and take action. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more women can finally get the sleep and health they deserve.

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Transcript

Podcast Shift And New Focus

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, Fearless Friends. It's Amy Schmidt and welcome to this episode of the Fearlessly Facing 50 and Beyond Podcast, which is now transitioning to the right size life. So excited about that. So I'm Amy Schmidt. I am an author, a podcast host, a TEDx speaker, and a media expert all around reinvention and confidence for women, especially at the later stages of life. Over 50. I used to call it midlife, but we're beyond midlife at that point. Unless we're going to be living to 120 and, you know, who knows with the way science is going, we don't know. But I will say I'm real excited to be bringing you this series. And we're going to be talking about topics that are really, really important. When we talk about the right size life, we are talking about aligning our space physically, mentally, emotionally, to the stage that we are in right now. Small daily habits that we can incorporate into our life, into our physical spaces, into our homes, into our mental and emotional spaces as well. And so that we can continue becoming who we are in this next chapter. Today we're going to be digging into the topic of sleep apnea. Now, this is really important because as we get older, there is a high percentage of women who struggle and suffer with sleep apnea apnea and they don't even know it. The statistics are actually staggering. And this is a personal topic for me because I had a sleep study done a while back. My primary care physician said, you know what, Amy, let's go ahead and get that done. You said you're having some sleepless nights. And a lot of times we just attribute that to, you know, menopause, to hot flashes, to waking up in the middle of the night. We're supposed to be feeling this way. We're supposed to be feeling tired. This is this phase of life. But actually, that is not the case. I actually had a sleep study done and it showed that I had mild sleep apnea. The more concerning part for me of that study was the fact that my oxygen level was dipping below 80, 80% at that, at certain times during the night, which is very significant for brain health, for cardiovascular health, for all of that. So this was really important for me to further the discussion around sleep apnea and how can I resolve and, you know, be healthy around this and get something that will help with this problem. Um, it was a really big deal. And I have to be honest with you, I put it off. I put it off forever because I said, ah, lose some weight, or, you know, I don't have sleep apnea. I'm sure it's something else. So with that, I want to introduce my guest today, who is my personal physician, Dr. Cannon. He um actually, I can read his bio real quickly here because he has a substantial background in um in dentistry. So he's been practicing general dentistry for over 25 years. He received his BS in biology and animal sciences from the University of Florida, as well as his dental degree from the University of Florida College of Dentistry. His postgraduate training is from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, and he's a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. So I am so excited to want to introduce you today to Dr. Cannon, and we're gonna be talking all the things about sleep apnea. So you don't want to miss this episode, so stay tuned. Thanks everybody for joining us today. As you heard in the intro, this is a really important topic. And you know what? I'm gonna start actually before we even dig in with Dr. Cannon. Here's a couple of statistics that I think are pretty shocking. Um, up to 90% of women with OSA are undiagnosed, often because they do not present with the classic loud snoring. And then the Society for Women's Health Research, uh, nearly one in five women have sleep apnea, a disorder that affects daytime functioning, but about nine in 10 women with sleep apnea don't know they have it. Wow. Okay. So those are some big statistics to start. And um uh Dr. Cannon, welcome to the show. I'm happy to have you here. I know this is round two because we we did an Instagram live and our recording, you know, what happens? Uh, we get some technical difficulties, but I had so many reach outs after it saying, hey, when are you gonna post that? So we're gonna go ahead and do this as a podcast episode. So it'll be audio as well as video. Um, Dr. Cannon's got a few things to show us, but um, tune in and make sure you share this with uh the women in your life, whether it's uh a friend, a colleague, your mother, a sister, whatever, because this is an important topic to dig into. So, Dr. Cannon, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Amy. It's good. I'm glad to be here.

How Women Present Differently

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah, absolutely. I I think this is something that um it's funny. I know there's recency bias bias or whatever it is, that that term where all of a sudden you start talking about sleep apnea and it's showing up everywhere. And that's definitely been happening for me. Um I wanted to share real quickly, just I did a little bit in the intro, but my story behind this was the fact that, you know, I went into my primary care doctor. They said, let's do a sleep study. I got one. It showed, wow, you have some sleep apnea. You're stopping breathing sometimes during the night. And what did I do? Like most women do, they put it off. They push it to the back burner and they say, it can't be right. That can't be me. I'm gonna lose the 10 pounds I need to lose. This is not happening. I'm just gonna put it off and not worry about it. Well, luckily, after I put it off for quite some time, I got in touch with Dr. Cannon. And he has really changed my journey around this, my trajectory of um just sleep apnea and being able to sleep at night, um, to breathe and have the right oxygen levels, um, you know, being recorded now. I mean, it is a big difference. So that's a little of my journey. But Dr. Cannon, let's dig into this with women. How many women come into you compared to men?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

About 50-50, maybe a little, maybe 60-40 men to women, probably a slight edge to men, but a significant number of women. And men and women present very differently with sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Men are men are kind of the characteristic, you know, big guy, big neck, big tongue, um, lays there, not breathing for a minute and a half, snores, you know, epic snoring that can be heard throughout the house, that kind of thing. That's characteristic of men. Women tend to be much quieter, it's a much more insidious kind of issue to have. Um, women tend to not snore very loud, um, and they will fight very hard to keep their airway open. Um, sleep apnea occurs when your tongue relaxes, when you go into REM sleep. So your tongue relaxes and falls back into your airway. Well, your tongue is attached to your lower jaw. So if you can bring the lower jaw forward and jut it forward, then that's going to pull the tongue forward and keep the airway open. Many women, some men, but mostly women, will do that during the night. They will keep their jaw protruded forward to pull their tongue out of their airway. They think it's a uh uh a protective reflex. It's men again, men do it, but it's much more common in women. They think maybe it's a maternal instinct to fight to keep your airway open.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Really?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

But you'll fight to keep that tongue out of the airway, but you're doing it, you're using the muscles in front of the ears, in the temples, and then often down the back of the head and neck to keep your airway open. So women have much better numbers, they're not as not as severe with their apnea, but they're fighting all night and they're waking up with headaches and migraines and you know, TMJ conditions and things like that.

Tongue Anatomy And Airway Collapse

SPEAKER_01 7:19

That's so interesting because one of the questions I had submitted was from a woman who said, you know, I wake up with a slight headache. Could that be sleep apnea? So right there, that could be something and and grinding our teeth. Um let's talk about the anatomy of the mouth because I I find this fascinating and it must change over time because more postmenopausal or menopausal women tend to have sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Um, is the tongue a muscle?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yes. In fact, I've got a little picture I can use.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

I'll try to keep the glare off it. Um, this is a like kind of an anatomical photo, and I use it during our consult to really to illustrate how large the tongue is. Um, we often think, you know, kind of stick your tongue out. That's about that much of the tongue. What blocks the airway is not the tip of the tongue, it's this back of the tongue. It's this vertical part of the tongue that falls back into the airway because again, the tongue is a muscle. So every time you go into REM sleep, which is that layer of sleep we need to feel rested in the morning, every time you go into REM, everything becomes relaxed, almost to the point of paralysis, including our tongue, and that just falls back into the airway because of gravity and it blocks your airway. Um, so yeah, it really is that simple. I really try to tell people you're not doing anything wrong. Right. There's nothing physically wrong with you. It's just that your tongue relaxes and falls back in your airway. The number of problems that it causes are numerous, but it really is that simple of just your tongue and your airway.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Well, for the women listening and watching, you know, women want to solve things. All right. We want to solve things. We want to say we can fix this. Like, I don't want to wear something every night. I don't. So I'm gonna exercise my tongue. I mean, I'm gonna do something to change this. Is that possible? Is I mean, is there a genetic link here? Is this just the way as we age our, you know, our tongue muscle changes?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

It's genetic in the sense that, you know, we're all a product of mom and dad. So if if dad was a big guy, had a big tongue, mom was on the smaller side, had maybe a recessed jaw. What it creates is a situation where there's just not enough room in the mouth for the tongue and it's gonna tend to fall back into the airway and crowd the airway. When you're when you're awake right now, your tongue is forward, your tongue is is flexed, again, because it's a muscle. It's when you go into RAM and everything relaxes and you sort of lose control of your tongue and it just falls back into your airway and closes it. So there are some genetic in that sense. Um, it does get worse over time. The muscles get weaker, they get looser, uh, the tissues, the tissues around the throat will also contribute to this. Um, the the uvula, the little punchy bag thing back there. I mean, those types of tissues will fall back in the airway and contribute to the problem. And they tend to, that does tend to get worse as we get older, yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Interesting. You know, I talk a lot about purpose and passion and and kind of how they intersect. Now, I know the story from Dr. Cannon personally, but would you just share briefly, you know, really why you're so passionate about this and and what triggered this for you in your life?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah. Uh so I've been a general dentist for about 26 years. Uh, graduated University of Florida. My daughter's there now as a undergrad. I'm so proud of her. Well, I about 14 years ago started taking classes about sleep apnea. And part of the original course that I took, it was a three-day course. It was up in Orlando in a hotel. And they give you a sleep test kit to take up to the room to use the first night. And then by Saturday of the course, you get your results. Well, mine, I stopped about 14, almost 15 times an hour.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

And my oxygen breathing kind of stopped. Stop breathing.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah. So on average, about every three or four minutes, I stopped breathing. And my oxygen got down to 79%. And that scared me. I've I've been in medicine my whole adult life. I worked in the hospital for years. I mean, if you've got the little pulse oximeter on your finger and it gets down to the low 90s, I mean, they're coming in to check on you because something's wrong. And I'm down at 79%. I see that all the time on people's sleep studies. I mean, they're in the 70% range, and we scratch our head and think, how is how are people living with this? I mean, it just doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Not to interrupt you there, but that's oxygen deprivation to the brain and to the cardiovascular system, right? Okay. Just for our listeners. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It does. It deprives the brain of oxygen, which is going to suffer predominantly, and then also the heart, because the heart is then contributing by beating faster, by beating harder to compensate for that low oxygen. Um, so I made myself, once I got those results, I made myself a dental device. That was my own first patient. And it changed, it changed my life. I mean, overnight. I hate the word literally, but it literally changed my life overnight because I went from waking up frequently during the night, having really bad anxiety, depression, having very high blood pressure that wasn't coming down with medication. Um, really that gastric reflux, I would get stomach acid coming up while I would sleep. Those went away almost overnight. And I decided, wow, this is something I really want to include in my repertoire of things I do in general dentistry. But the more I started doing it and the more I realized how much I could help people uh sleep better, I could help couples sleep together again because now they're both sleeping quietly. Um, you know, I decided this is what I want to do and open my own practice. What really got me, though, was what happened when I was a kid. And my father had a fatal heart attack when I was six, he was 38, and in his sleep. And when I took that first course, one of the topics of what of the medical conditions that happened as a result of sleep apnea was sudden heart attack in the middle of the night. I thought, wow, that's what happened to my dad. So I called my mom that night and I asked her about dad and if he had sleep apnea. And of course, her response was, what is that? Right. Yeah, what is it? I didn't even know what it was. And that's the problem, is nobody really knew what it was. But when I explained it to her, she was almost in tears and saying, I I think that's what happened to your dad. I mean, he would snore, he would stop breathing, I'd have to kick him in the back to get him breathing all night. And I really think it caused his heart to redline and he just never woke up. He he just it just his heart just redlined into into nothing.

CPAP Inspire And Oral Devices

SPEAKER_01 13:23

So wow. Yeah. Well, I'm so sorry about that because that's a devastating story. But at the same time, it's you know, so glad that there must be a genetic link there. I mean, there has to be. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's genetics and how your mouth is, you know, set up and all of that. But um, thank you for sharing that because that yeah, that shows why you're so passionate about it. And when I went in to see Dr. Cannon, you can tell his passion. I mean, he looks at each patient differently. Um, now he has a dental device uh at Sleep Better Sarasota. So let's let's walk through that a little bit, especially for people that are watching, because they're watching all over the country and the world now. So when the when they're listening to this, let's walk through that device and how it works because people have heard of CPAP. Right. You know, people have heard of that. Some people might have heard of Inspire, which I know is a little bit more of an invasive type device. Now, and you'll have to talk to me about if there's medicines or something coming out for this, because more and more people are talking about it. But let's talk specifically about this device because it has certainly helped me.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So CPAP is just really uh an air compressor with a mask. It's going to blow air up your nose, your mouth, sort of inflate your airway. I never have anything bad to say about it, but I hear so many comments from so many patients that just cannot tolerate wearing the mask on their face. Uh, probably four out of five people that I make a dental device for have tried CPAP and just can't tolerate it. So if you're if you've tried it and you're frustrated with it, you're not alone out there by any means. The uh inspire is a little insert uh device that's inserted, then there's a wire that goes from that into you through your neck and into your tongue, and it'll stimulate your tongue to flex and and open up your airway. It is effective, but it's a pretty major surgery. You don't want to be doing surgery in the neck if you don't have to. It's a wow, it's a dangerous place to do surgery.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

So it sparks your tongue. Wow. All the tongue. I mean, who knew this tongue was so involved in sleep apnea?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

It really is. It's all about our tongue. So the dental device works on the premise that we have our upper and our lower teeth, and what's happening, and again, our tongue is attached in there to our lower jaw. So it's going to attach along the inside of the floor of your mouth, and everything's just falling backwards and your airway's collapsing and you're suffocating. Then it fires forward and you start breathing again, and then it falls backward and you start suffocating and breathing. That's what grinding of our teeth are. A lot of people come in and say, Oh, my dentist told me I grind my teeth. I made night guards for 20 years. The problem with just a night guard is if we just have that on the upper teeth, your jaw is still gonna fall backwards. There's nothing that's gonna keep it from falling backwards into your airway. It's gonna protect the surfaces of your teeth, but you're not gonna keep the jaw from falling backwards and the tongue from falling in the airway. What we need is a second piece that's gonna interact with the top piece, and they're always tough to see, but you have your upper and you have your lower, and we call this one a dorsal because it looks like a dorsal fin. And everyone always thinks, oh my gosh, how am I gonna wear that with those big fingers? I wear it. Yep. You you wear it, yeah, and you would never just wear the lower, you're gonna wear them as a pair. Yeah. And when you have them both in, your cheeks just gonna sit right over the top of that. But if what happens is it creates a gating effect where you're only gonna fall back to that position. You can still open and close, you can still wiggle around, but you're only gonna fall back to that position because that fin and that block interact and keep you and keep a make a stop so you don't fall back any further. They are adjustable. So you we do the fitting and then you come in about every two weeks, and then we move the little block forward, and then that brings your jaw a little bit further forward. We don't want to start too far forward because that can stretch some jaw muscles. It can trigger off some TMGA conditions. But if we set the jaw at the right position and move at the correct pace, bring your jaw very slowly forward over the course of a few weeks, we can actually correct TMJ problems because no longer are you going to be posturing your jaw forward. Your jaw is already gonna be there. Your airway is gonna be open. So your muscles will just shut off and relax because they're no longer trying to keep you breathing. Your airway's staying open because you're wearing the dental device.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

For those that are watching, um, you will have seen that. And I'm gonna share a photo too of me with it because I put it in every night. And I have to tell you, well, I'm I'm a very compliant, rule-following girl. So I have been wearing it every night. Uh, and I didn't have any problems. I know some people have had problems with a little jaw soreness, but um, Dr. Cannon goes over some exercises you can do in the morning. I will tell you from the first time we recorded to now, um, I've had like no of the none of the real jaw pain that I was having. Sometimes I'd wake up with an achy jaw before the device, and that was probably sleep apneas as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yeah. You're using those muscles right there to posture your jaw forward. If you've ever taken a CPR course, they would say two things to open up the airway. One, you lift the chin.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

So that's going to be the muscles in front of the ears, the temples that are going to be posturing your the jaw forward to pull the tongue out of the airway. Um, and then also tip the head back. So a lot of people, especially women, will sleep with their head looking up and back, and they're putting a lot of pressure on the back on the muscles in the back of the head and neck. I mean, I have people tell me all the time I have I have neck problems. I go to the chiropractor. A lot of that is because of what you're doing with your skull to try to get your tongue out of your airway, but you're feeling it in the neck and shoulders because of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Wow. Do you have a testimonial besides mine that is, I mean, I I've had great results, but can you just share a story? I mean, I I don't think there's any um, you know, to share names or anything, but just a story of somebody that's come in and you've to, I mean they've just been so thankful that, you know, they had the sleep study done and now they have this device and their life has changed.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

There's actually a couple, uh, a a couple that I've treated, um, both the husband and the wife. They could not sleep in the same bed together. Um, sleep divorce is real.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

He was snoring so badly, so he's sleeping in a separate bedroom. So sleep divorce exactly is a very real and common thing that we see. And that can that can lead to a lot of marital strife. If if people can't sleep in different beds, you know, they have a one-bedroom apartment or, you know, something like that, um, it creates a lot of marital strife. It creates a lot of anger amongst uh amongst partners. You're laying there, first of all, you're laying there scared. You're laying there scared that this person's not going to take another breath again. So that keeps you awake, but you're angry at that person for keeping you awake all night. And it ends up spilling into the morning, and you got fights in the morning, and a lot of it's because of because of the sleep apnea. So he was sleeping in a different room. Um, she was having migraines when she wakes up uh and a lot of jaw muscle soreness and pain. I think she was also having gastric reflux like I was.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

We treated, we treated him and he loved it and was just did so much better. They were able to sleep in the same bed together again. Well, it got her thinking that maybe she was having some of the same problems. So a few months later, we treated her and got rid of the headaches, got rid of the jaw soreness, still had a little bit of gastric reflux, which we were trying to kind of work around. We she was still gonna take some medication because we couldn't really fully get rid of that. Um, but just a uh a couple that we were able to bring back together and and both of them felt better and they were also able to sleep together again, which was wonderful. So that's why I love doing it. I love doing it.

Fitting Adjustments And TMJ Relief

Home Sleep Testing Made Simple

SPEAKER_01 20:32

You see, you see results. Um, just for those of you that are just tuning in, I have Dr. Cannon with me from Sleep Better Sarasota. Um, we're talking about sleep apnea, and I'm gonna share that up to um uh those statistics I shared at the beginning. If you're just tuning in, Society for Women's Health Research said nearly one in five women have sleep apnea, a disorder that affects daytime functioning, for sure. You know, all of a sudden that midday you're getting tired. But about nine in ten women with sleep apnea don't know they have it. So let's transition to the sleep test. Now, I had a different sleep test done in a different part of the country where I first kind of, if you were listening at the beginning, uh I was diagnosed and I put it off because I said, There's no way I have sleep apnea, it's embarrassing, there's no way. So I'm just gonna forget about that. Now, the sleep test I did with you was really interesting. Can you can you show that I think you have it for those that are watching?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

So it's a little, it's almost like an Apple watch, it's a little minor, uh, but it just sits right on the top of your wrist. And then there's also a finger sensor that plugs in, but it would sit, it would go on your finger like this.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

So we're trying to get a whole thing in the new, but basically, and that's it from there to there. And it goes to our phones to our phones, and we can have an Android or a or an Apple, right? Yeah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yes, pair that up, you wear it for two nights. Uh, very simple test to do. They are very accurate. We we get that sometimes people have a little trepidation, like, are these accurate? What they did is they would strap these to people while they were also doing a full in lab test. So they go in in your wired from head to toe and everything. And you're also wearing this, and the numbers were jiving. And so the the technology has really come a long way to where you can wear a watch. Some of them are even a little uh a ring on your thumb that you wear. Um and and we do get accurate data. The problem we're always going to get more data at a sleep lab. You're going to get brain waves you're going to get how the person is sleeping, whether they're on their back or their side, which is important, but it's not necessarily critical to know if someone stops breathing. We we don't need brain waves. We don't need to know if they're sleeping on their back. I just need to know if their airway's closing and how many times per hour does that happen right to make a diagnosis.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

So and and your test I did it two nights.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Okay. So two nights. So you commit to two nights. They don't have to be right in a row but they should be within a couple days of each other.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Usually yeah yeah okay you can do it over over we have a way to do it over the weekend where you could do it like Friday and Saturday. And then if you know for some reason it didn't get enough data or something you could always do it Sunday night as well. So yeah but sleep testing has become very easy. It really is a barrier to people getting treated because they think I have to go to a sleep lab and you don't have to go to a sleep lab. Most sleep doctors send people home with a home sleep test kit now. It really has become the norm.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

And then only if there's really weird data there's something called central sleep apnea or some other conditions that happen that people sleep poorly then maybe go to a sleep lab and look at brainwaves and that kind of thing. It it's always better that way, but it's not necessary and and it creates an unnecessary barrier to people getting treated because they don't want to go to a sleep lab.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Interesting. I thought it was very easy. I had to hush my husband a couple times when I put it on because I'm like I'm really supposed to be sleeping now. You know you have a little anxiety at first oh boy it's monitoring me. But you know for all those women out there listening or watching right now that haven't taken a girls trip because they're like eh I don't want to share room I'm kind of snoring or they don't want to because everybody I mean I'm telling you the the statistics are huge on this and there has not been enough talk about it. I mean we talk so much about heart disease for women we talk so much about menopause but we talk about these things and sleep apnea is a component of all of that.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

So it's so important to get tested to to go talk to your doctor or you know come well I'm in here in Sarasota come see Dr. Cannon he's the best of the best um you can find him and and uh how would people go about you know let's walk through just that scenario of a woman saying I don't know I mean do I really need to do this? It's going to be expensive. It's going to be invasive and now it's going to be embarrassing. What would you say to that woman listening right now?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Gosh don't be embarrassed at all. I it it it perplexes me why there is such a almost a stigma about it. I mean people talk about ED and and things like that more which is can be a absolutely be affected by sleep apnea by the way they'll talk about that more than they will with sleep apnea. Like there's something you're doing wrong or you're embarrassed about. And like I said it it's just your tongue falling into your airway. That that's all that's happening. You're not doing anything wrong. There's nothing physically wrong with you. You're just suffocating on your own tongue and you know to to get a sleep study is just going to sleep study is very non-invasive it's going to show how many times that happens per hour. That'll give us an idea the severity of it. And then we can talk about what what option's going to be best. I mean for 80 90% of cases of sleep apnea dental device is a very extremely effective therapy for sleep apnea.

Stigma Cost And Getting Help

SPEAKER_01 25:32

So for my actual let's say we've got about six minutes left for my you know sleep study the first one that came back and it was that oxygen level that was dipping um 79 it was low and I had no really no realization of that my husband was saying things like you're not necessarily snoring some nights I would but most of the time he just thought I was I was sleeping differently. That's what he would say. Your sleep pattern seems different. And of course I just blame that on hot flashes and everything else that you know you're experiencing as a woman at this stage of life. But indeed it was sleep apnea. I had my test repeated Dr. Cannon went in and adjusted it a bit for me and I will share that I have huge dental phobia. I have issues with my teeth since I was little since I got my braces off. So I have huge phobia around going to any dentist and this was the easiest procedure because even to get the dental device they didn't do a mold like they used to in the old days where I would just for fear my teeth would come out. You know it's all this innov I know it it is it is funny but I've heard that dreams of like my teeth being on my pillow because I was so scared these would fall out because I have a I have a dental device not device but bridge crown. Anyway the the the actual how you did it was so interesting. Can you just kind of describe what you do because the innovation around this is mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah it's it's they've actually been around quite a while and I'm I'm it always surprises me people say oh I my my dentist use that so a lot of dentists are starting to use the digital scanner um it essentially is a digital camera. There's no radiation a lot of people ask me is this X-rays no it's just a digital camera but it's it's like a wand and we basically just walk it around the mouth it takes thousands of pictures of the teeth doesn't hurt a bit it's it's much less invasive than the tray full of goopy stuff which I did I've done 10,000 impressions in my career and I I've been on the other end of all those and know that it's it's not fun. You know I I have tried to coax people through impressions my whole career like okay cross your feet okay uncross your feet like just tip your head forward you know I mean so it's yeah I know nobody likes that. But the scanner is much less invasive. It's much easier it doesn't gag people. Yeah it gets a much more accurate impression because it doesn't distort and it also goes to the lab much faster because I don't have to stick an impression in the mailbox and you know have four or five days out to St. Louis to the lab that we use. So it's much faster. It's much more accurate and it's much more tolerable by patients. So I think you'll really like it.

Custom Scans Mail Order Warnings

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah I mean it was just easy to to go in and have that done. Then when I actually got the device um Dr. Canaan fit me and then was I was so nervous I mean he could probably you can probably remember I was so nervous I was almost in tears because I thought oh my gosh if I pull this out and my teeth come out I'm I I'm you know and that's what my husband was worried about for me too to be honest. But you were so cool calm and collected and just said all right Amy let's try this and and key actually then positions or however you do you manipulate the device so it fits you properly. So this isn't something like you just mail order and you're seeing something on TikTok and you're getting it and you're putting it in it is nothing like that. This is custom tailored to you and I I just think it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

And there are that is becoming more popular where there are companies that are you do your own impression it's DIY dental device therapy. I mean wow I I I don't get it. I like the fact that people more people around the country and around the world can get treated but you're doing it yourself you're make you're making your own impression they send you something you go you fit it yourself. If it doesn't fit what do you do then you know exactly I don't I don't routinely see people that come in that had something made online. I wouldn't want to mess with any so who's going to follow up when your when your mail order device doesn't work right what we do is custom fitted it it's an amazing device. They're so comfortable what made it so comfortable for you Amy was on the it they're hard acrylic but on the inside of them I don't have it on the sample model but on the inside is a very thin soft material. It's a it's called a thermoplastic liner and it just creates a little bit of a cushion and it's why we were able to get it to fit so well but not where it's so tight on any of those crowns or bridges that you have.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah it's been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

It just makes it so much more comfortable that way.

Cleaning The Device And Hygiene

SPEAKER_01 29:41

It's been amazing. I mean it's been an adjustment but it's been amazing. Let's talk quickly I did have a question come in about hygiene. People are very worried about the bacteria in your mouth how are we cleaning it all of that. So let's walk through that if you get a dental device.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Sure cleaning it very very simple uh we use a toothbrush and some toothpaste toothpaste is bacteriostatic. You would basically just brush in all the little tooth spaces there's there's a little gap on the side where we do the adjustments that you want to keep clean. We go over all this with everyone and of how to do it. But basically you're just going to clean in all the little tooth spaces on the flat side you can use some people will get like a um like a little ultrasonic cleaner you can get them on Amazon for like$40. Put some water in it dunk them in there that kills bacteria the ultrasonic waves you can put them in some peroxide for a few minutes just to kind of freshen them up but they're very easy to keep clean and very easy to take care of. Obviously stay on top of your your dental cleanings and things like that. So the mouth is clean and it's just a matter of daily uh cleaning of the device honestly it probably takes three or four minutes to clean it though compared to CPAP which can take I mean you've got to run it through a whole you know not sterilizer a disinfector right you know for 30 minutes and that kind of thing. So much easier to take care of than CPAP.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

And hopefully people are doing that because that is an important step with that. Yes. Thanks so much. I mean I just think it's so great. I I am a fan of Dr. Cannon. I wish for everybody that's in and around this area to go see him we'll be sharing all of his contact information. But you know for those of you that are watching in other parts of the country where should they how should they get this journey started about how to really treat sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Find out if they for us if someone's local they can check us out at Sleep Better Sarasota as you're going to uh provide we do complimentary consultations over the phone or we can have someone come in and it's just like this we just talk about what sleep apnea is talk about what a dental device is and there there's no pressure or anything. For people that are around the country um I am not a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. I I was for a while I but there is a website you can go to for the American Academy of dental sleep medicine. It is a dsm dot I believe it's dot org a dsm dot org you can put in your zip code and it will tell you where a dentist is in your area that does dental sleep medicine. Like I said not every dentist that does dental sleep medicine is part of the that academy but it it is a good search engine to find someone close to you.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Okay appreciate that very much yeah Dr. Cannon uh I actually called and I think like I said before I think I hung up on you and because I was so nervous about it and I'm like ah I don't have sleep apnea I'm just going to put it off another six months which would be so silly because it's been a life and game changer for me. I have more energy I never knew what it was like to sleep really well.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

That is that's it when you said earlier in your opening statement about women don't even realize they have it I I find men know they have it. They're told they have it they're pestered by their their bed partner that they have it. Women you're too busy to be tired. You've got too much to do to be tired. But yet at five in 5 p.m in the afternoon you're just uh falling asleep and just you've just run out of steam. You're waking up with migraines I mean things like that. That is all your airway closing and there's a solution for it.

Weight Cortisol GLP Meds Closing

SPEAKER_01 32:57

It's amazing. Yep yep so please submit your questions because we'll circle back to Dr. Cannon and let's get him out there talking about this more in other parts of the country because you're so great about it and so knowledgeable and so caring. And you don't always find that and um I really appreciate that a lot. So um so get tested ladies um you know we can figure this out and and don't have it be this stigma and embarrassing and try to lose the 10 pounds. I mean certainly if you need to lose 10 pounds lose 10 pounds. But in addition to that well let's just start let's end with that part because I know a lot of people think it's a weight issue. And there is a component of that but let's just talk about that briefly because we still have just another minute.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

I'm I'm really glad that came up before we finished because it's it's very easy to understand that being overweight contributes to sleep apnea. Our tongue gets bigger our neck gets bigger that's that's obvious. You know our nose gets bigger it was that our nose gets bigger too our nose does get bigger yeah yeah and the tissues inside the nose get thicker and and you know bulkier but what's missed often is it's the sleep apnea that's creating the weight gain. When your body is suffocating when your airway is closing and you're suffocating your body goes into fight or flight mode and it uses the hormones adrenaline and cortisol. And cortisol will wreck our efforts to keep a healthy blood sugar so that can uh really affect and and create diabetes, type 2 diabetes, but it also makes it very difficult to maintain a healthy weight when your cortisol levels are fluctuating like they are. So by getting the airway open get your stress hormones under control now your body's going to be more physiologically in a state to lose weight you still have to walk you still have to eat right you can do GLPs and those are going to work so much better the the injectables um you asked earlier if there are medications for sleep apnea they market that these will help sleep apnea by losing weight but you've got to get the tongue out of the airway to really effectively treat sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

So fantastic I love to end on that. Thank you so much. Thanks for all the wisdom today go to sleep better Sarasota. I will share all of that information. Dr. Cannon keep in touch because um well I'll be in to see anyway because I'm sure I'll have a effect at some point but I really I'm thankful for you and um I just appreciate you sharing all your wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Thank you, Amy. It's been a pleasure to be here and an honor to speak to your audience.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Okay thanks