Oral Appliances as a Treatment Option for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

 A recent article in Respiratory Care and Sleep Medicine highlighted how oral appliances are an effective treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

While CPAP (continuous airway pressure) is the standard of care for treating obstructive sleep apnea there is another effective option for treatment and that is oral appliance therapy.

  • There is a wealth of research now available to demonstrate how effective clinical treatment of mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea can be with an oral appliance. Oral appliances have been successful in treating some patient with severe obstructive sleep apnea.
  •  Oral appliances can be used alone or they can be used to open the oral airway enough to allow the reduction of effective CPAP pressure.
  • Oral appliances therapy has been shown to be similar to CPAP for treatment of mild to moderate OSA in decreasing excessive daytime sleepiness, increasing quality of life measures, decreasing snoring, improving neurobehavioral function and decreasing nocturnal and diurnal blood pressure.
  • Long term effectiveness: data shows that patients with oral devices for more than five years remain effectively treated.
  • Oral appliances do not cause temporomandibular joint pain when they are properly fitted and adjusted.
  • Compliance with oral appliance therapy is as high as 75%  of patients using their appliance all night, seven nights a week (Demko, 2012)

Contact the Sleep Institute of New England at 603-347-8810 or check our website at www.sleepne.com for an appointment. The Sleep Institute of New England offers two oral devices the Somnoguard and the TAP where fitting and follow up is all done in our office.

 

 Reference

 

Demko, B.D. (2012). Dental dynamics in OSA treatment. Respiratory Care & Sleep Medicine, 21 (5), 24-30.

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