Other Considerations

Morning headaches can be a symptom of OSA. Morning headaches are reported in 33.6% of OSA patients compared to 8.9% in a control group, and treating the OSA resolves nearly 90% of these headaches.³⁵

Some medications dentists prescribe may aggravate OSA. Drugs to avoid in untreated or non-adherent OSA patients include the benzodiazepines and the opioid class of medications, as both of these aggravate OSA symptoms.³⁶ However the non-benzodiazepine hypnotics such as zolpidem or eszopiclone are able to be used in OSA.

And finally on the dental side, a relationship exists between the presence of tooth wear with OSA and sleep bruxism (SB).³⁷ While tooth wear may or may not be indicative of current SB, both OSA and SB exhibit periods of cortical hyperarousal and micro-arousals during sleep.³⁹