Who Should Diagnose Sleep Apnea?

Sleep Apnea Diagnostic Process

We start diagnosing sleep apnea by talking about your symptoms and medical history. It’ll be helpful if you can keep a journal of how you feel every day. This way we can determine if these symptoms match up with those of sleep apnea.

Then, we need to do a physical examination of your airway. This will include looking in and feeling your throat. We may also take some images with an MRI or X-ray. This will help us see if something’s blocking your airway.

Finally, if we are sure you have sleep apnea you will need to get a sleep study. Sleep studies gather information about your sleep patterns. We measure blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and other factors. Through a sleep study, we can see for sure if you have sleep apnea or another type of sleep disorder.

Once we determine that you have sleep apnea we need to come up with a treatment plan. So, we need to take some time to understand why your airway is collapsing while you sleep.

Who Can Diagnose Sleep Apnea?

Now let’s look at what kind of doctors can diagnose sleep apnea. Ideally, all of these doctors should work together in order to find the right solution. Taking a collaborative approach is the best way to ensure you get what you need.

Start with Primary Care Provider

The best place to start is your primary care provider. They can help you determine if your issues are actually related to sleep apnea or another sleep disorder.

If you are noticing signs of sleep apnea you should start taking note of them before your consultation. As noted above, it helps a lot to keep a journal of how you feel. Write down what time you go to bed and when you make up. Note how tired you are every day. Ask your partner if they hear you snore or wake up at all in the night, write that down too.

Your primary care provider likely knows you best. They also have the best understanding of your medical history. That gives them a leg up in terms of diagnosing sleep apnea.

Once your primary care provider has determined that you have sleep apnea they will refer you on to a specialist to get a more specific diagnosis.

Specialists Who Diagnose Sleep Apnea

There are a few specialists that can help narrow down your sleep apnea diagnosis. The right one will depend on what your primary care provider suggests.

Specialists who can diagnose sleep apnea include:

• Sleep specialist
• ENT
• Oral surgeon/Dentist

Ideally, a collaborative approach should be taken when it comes to diagnosing sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a complex issue. There may be multiple factors that contribute to it. So, you need different perspectives and skill sets to make sure we get the right diagnosis. Any specialist you see should be in constant communication with your primary care provider and vice versa.