Sleep apnea results in oxygen deficiencies, leading to greater acidic content in the body. Yet new data and techniques enable dentists to make meaningful changes in the total health of their patients by providing abundant oxygen and bringing them more freedom from illness, body breakdown, pain, fatigue, and loss of energy.
Oxygen and Systemic Health
Winner of the 1931 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Dr. Otto Warburg was a Jewish physician in the early days of Hitler’s Germany. His research showed that low levels of oxygen in the body, hypoxemia, led to increased cancer, infectious bacteria, viruses, and high acidity, or acidosis.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Hitler was very frightened of cancer. He kept Warburg alive and set him up in a research lab. In 1944, Warburg was to be awarded a second Nobel Prize for research showing that abundant oxygen in the body eliminated four maladies that surfaced with hypoxemia—acidity-acidosis, brain damage, cardiovascular and lung problems, and osteoporosis—but Hitler and the Nazis would not let him receive it.
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Figure 1. The Full Breath Solution Sleep Appliance has a single arch and an adjustable wire tail that can be bent or extended to depress the tongue and open the oropharyngeal airway. |
Yet Warburg’s research showed that hypoxemia caused the body to become acidic. Hypoxemia and acidosis weaken the immune system and make the body more prone to illness, body breakdown, pain, fatigue, and lack of energy.
Plus, eight of the top 10 causes of death in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke (cerebrovascular diseases), Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis—all are exasperated by hypoxemia and acidosis.
Warbrug’s work earned him the Nobel Prize, but further clinical studies are required to prove that greater oxygen levels would reduce or eliminate acidity and have a positive effect on systemic health.
New Treatment
Current medicine does not have the answers for treating sleep apnea and preventing hypoxemia and acidosis, though. Continuous positive airway pressure has a rejection rate as high as 80%. Dentistry may have the answer, however, in the Full Breath Solution Sleep Appliance.
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| Figure 2. The Full Breath Solution Sleep Appliance also features tubes that deliver oxygen from the concentrator to the appliance and to the body. |
The Full Breath Solution Sleep Appliance has a single arch and an adjustable wire tail that can be bent or extended in two minutes to get the best results for depressing the tongue and opening the oropharyngeal airway for better oxygen intake (Figure 1a-c). It also features tubes that deliver oxygen from the concentrator to the appliance and to the body (Figure 2a-b).
With the tubes added and the tail bent open to the airway, the appliance can deliver one to two liters of 92% oxygen per minute. It gathers oxygen from the concentrator and delivers it to the body in the rear of the appliance and in front of the oropharyngeal airway. Also, it uses low pressure and speed for patient comfort and optimal results.
Using the concentrator, mean oxygen saturation can be increased to 95% to 99%, which is the level of oxygenation that Warburg believed would eliminate the four resulting maladies of hypoxemia. However, further studies are necessary to verify the Full Breath Solution Sleep Appliance’s efficacy in improving overall health.
Dentistry now can make major changes, improving the health of mankind. Abundant oxygen amounts to a trip to the fountain of youth. It heals, energizes, and creates an alkaline environment in the body. And dentistry now has the best and more effective delivery system for getting oxygen into our bodies.
Dr. Keropian is a dentist with offices in Beverly Hills and Sherman Oaks in California. He treats sleep apnea, snoring, and poor health due to low oxygen as well as temporomandibular disorders. He also is the developer and designer of oral appliances that treat sleep apnea, with five clearances from the Food and Drug Administration and five patents. He can be reached at tmjrelief@msn.com.
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