Snoring and Sleep Apnea

Snoring affects millions of people of all ages, both male and female. Approximately one in seven North Americans have a chronic sleep disorder. Oral appliance therapy is the most common treatment for snoring without sleep apnea. Treatment procedures range from changing your sleep patterns to utilizing orthodontic-related appliances that help open the airways during sleep.

What causes snoring? Snoring is caused by the vibrations of your soft and/or hard tissue palates; these vibrations occur because of increasingly narrow air passages. When air passes through these passages, a “flapping” sound occurs because the tissue is soft in nature.
 Common risk factors for snoring:
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Health Problems
• Obesity
• Obstructed Nasal Passages - Deviated Septum
• Poor Muscle Tone of the Tongue
• Daytime Fatigue
• Sleep Apnea
• Hypothyroidism
• Allergies

 Sleep Apnea
The word “apnea” literally means “without breath.” There are three types of apnea. In all three, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), the most common is usually caused when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. With each apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.

Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Fatigue, day time sleepiness, irritability, depression, headaches, impotence, high blood pressure and motor vehicle accidents are risks associated with obstructive sleep apnea.

Treatment options for sleep apnea include Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), oral appliances, and surgery. Your medical doctor will recommend the treatment of choice based on your sleep studies.

Oral Appliances
A mouthpiece, sometimes called an oral appliance, does not cure Obstructive Sleep Apnea however it may help in preventing the apnea and/or snoring from occurring during sleep. Two thirds of the patients report a significant improvement using oral appliances. A dentist/orthodontist is the best person in delivering oral appliances to the patients because they can monitor the changes that occur to the dentition. Furthermore, they can fabricate an appliance that will fit most comfortably and therefore, is used more regularly for ideal results.

Consultation Phase

During the initial consultation and examination with the orthodontist, the use of the oral appliance and procedures involved during the follow-up visits will be discussed. After four months of appliance wear you will be referred back to your medical doctor for follow-up sleep study to assess the effectiveness of the appliance.

Appointment Sequence
1. An initial consultation appointment with the orthodontist to discuss the use of Oral appliances for Sleep Apnea.
2. A records appointment to take radiographs, molds of the teeth and bite registration to fabricate the appliance.
3. Insertion of the appliance appointment within 2-4 weeks. Instructions regarding appropriate appliance wear.
4. Regular follow up appointments to improve fit and effectiveness of the appliance.
5. Four months later, an appointment to go back to your medical doctor for a follow-up sleep study.
6. One year later, a follow-up appointment for the assessment of symptoms, appliance wear and dental occlusion. For more information please contact Drs Adams and Gimlen

Dental Xrays and Increased Tumor Risk

There was a new study released showing a relationship (not a cause) between the number of dental X-rays (taken 30 years ago when dosages were higher) and a benign form of brain tumors.

The video is also informative from a patient point of view. We always try to minimize the radiation dosage we expose our patients to by reducing the number of dosages and utilizing the most advanced cutting edge digital technology. Please feel free to ask Dr Adams and Gimlen about the study. We want to make sure our patients, families and communities are informed.

TOMS One Day without Shoes Event

Thank you to all that made it out to our TOMS One Day without Shoes event and thank you to TOMS and Rubios for their donations.

Congratulations to Lauren, Elizabeth and Andrea who all won TOMS sunglasses and Ms. Pastor who got a free meal at Rubios.

For more information about TOMS mission visit their website http://www.toms.com/

TOMS’ 5TH ANNUAL ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES APRIL 10, 2012

Making a difference for millions of children around the world could be easy as taking off your shoes



On Tuesday, April 10, TOMS will ask the world to go without shoes for its annual One
Day Without Shoes event. This is the day each year that TOMS raises awareness of the
impact a pair of shoes can have on a child’s life. Last year, people went without shoes at over 1,000 events in over 25 countries around the globe.



Millions of children around the world live without proper footwear, exposing them to
injury and disease every day. TOMS was founded on the premise that with every pair of
shoes someone purchases, a pair of new shoes will be given to a child in need. One for One™. The idea of One Day Without Shoes came about as a way to call attention to the need for shoes around the world and the issues surrounding that need.



Duffin, Adams and Gimlen Orthodontics is proud to partner with TOMS, for their day
without shoes event. We would like to invite our patients, families and members of the community to join us in an awareness walk from our office to El Segundo High School, on April 10th at 11:45 am.The office is located at 512 Main Street in El Segundo. One lucky participant will win a pair of TOMS sunglasses.



About TOMS:

In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in a village in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Just last year,
TOMS evolved from a shoe company to the One for One company, now addressing an entirely new need in addition to shoes through eyewear, helping give sight to people in need.

Sports Mouth Guards- Protect your investment

Getting your braces off can be one of the most momentous occasions in your life. You are so excited to show off your new smile to your friends and family. Now that your smile is perfect, you want to keep it that way for your entire life. So how do you do that? Two ways: 1. Wear your retainers as instructed by Drs Adams and Gimlen and 2. Wear a mouth guard when you participate in any sport where you could be hit in the mouth/jaw.
Mouth guards protect your teeth, lips, jaws and gums; and current research suggests that they also may aid in reducing the incidence of concussions. Anyone who plays a sport where they can suffer trauma to the mouth/jaw should have a custom fit mouth guard. This would include any sport using a ball, gymnastics, martial arts, hockey, etc…
At Duffin, Adams and Gimlen Orthodontics we want to protect the smiles of our patients and our community’s athletes. We fabricate custom mouth guards at an extremely affordable price. All we need is a simple impression to create a customized mouth guard in your choice of colors. Please give us a call 310-545-6525 or visit our website www.bracesbythesea.com for additional information.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Duffin, Adams and Gimlen Orthodontics is not only committed to the health of our patients, but we are also committed to the health of our community at large. Breast cancer has touched our lives intimately; our team members, spouses, patients and dear friends. During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our team wanted to do something to show our support for breast cancer research. Our offices challenged our patients to “Get Pink” by chosing pink elastics for their braces. To acknowledge their participation, a donation would be made to breast cancer research.
The response was heartwarming: 185 patients left our office with pink elastics! Duffin, Adams and Gimlen Orthodontics have made a donation to Dr. Helena Chang, Director of the Revlon/UCLA Breast Cancer Center. Her research focuses on the development of immunotherapy in treating adult ductal epithelial cancer, of which our team member Sandy, Dr Gimlen’s Auntie Sue, Dr Duffin’s wife and Dr Gimlen’s co-resident Dr. Elizabeth Gohl are survivors.
Thank you to all of our patients who participated.

The LA 25 fundraiser supporting the Manhattan Beach Roundhouse Aquarium

October 20th 2011 the LA 25, of which Dr Amy Gimlen is a member, held a fundraiser benefiting the Manhattan Beach Roundhouse Aquarium. It was an amazing event with an art auction that raised over $10,000 for the aquarium. Dr Adams and Gimlen are committed to not only their patients, but also to the community at large. Please check out the video about the roundhouse and all that it does for the community http://vimeo.com/30922510.