More About Dental Sleep Apnea Treatment
°This page will provide an overview of obstructive sleep apnea and oral appliance therapy, and explain why oral appliance therapy is an effective treatment option for OSA.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep 1. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing many times during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night 1.
Sometimes the apnea, or lack of breathing, is caused by an obstruction. This is commonly from your tongue sliding back into your throat and closing it off due to gravity while sleeping on your back, or some of the other tissue in the back of your throat, like your tonsils or soft palate, doing the same.
Obstructive apneas often have a sound associated with them, like snoring. Snoring is the turbulence of the air trying to enter and exit the very narrow, obstructed passageway.
Sometimes the lack of breathing is from your brain getting confused and telling your body you have enough oxygen even though you don’t. This is called central apnea.
It’s important to have a sleep doctor perform and evaluate a sleep study so the cause of the apnea is diagnosed correctly. There are different treatments for central apneas and obstructive apneas.
The gold standard for treating obstructive sleep apnea is the CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure machine.
If you can’t tolerate a CPAP machine, due to claustrophobia, or just plain discomfort, you may want to consider Oral Appliance Therapy (OAT).
Oral appliance therapy is an effective treatment option for snoring and OSA 12.
People who are happy with their CPAP, and those who use oral appliance therapy as an alternative, report:
- improved sleep quality
- increased energy
- improved overall health
- improved relationships
Oral appliance therapy uses a custom made device, pictured below, which is designed to fit over your teeth while you sleep and support your jaw in a forward position to keep your airway open.
There are many designs for an oral appliance:
An EMA appliance:
A Herbst-style appliance:
Dorsal fin-style appliance:
Panthera digital sleep apnea appliance:
All of the designs function in a similar way. They all work by holding your lower jaw in a forward position and preventing gravity from pulling it backwards while you sleep, keeping your airway open all night.
Because they prevent your airway from being obstructed, they are very effective at treating snoring.
You may be wondering: “How far does my jaw have to be pulled out for this to work?”
The answer is that the distance varies from person to person.
At Sleep Connecticut we take a number of measurements to try to determine the best position to start with. From there, we work with you to move the device forward and backward to find the best position.
Oral appliance therapy is a balancing act between opening your airway enough that we prevent obstruction, but not pulling your jaw out so far that it causes pain. It is a process that takes a few weeks to get right. We always go slowly and conservatively. The good news is that we can accomplish these steps remotely.
No design is perfect for every patient.
At Sleep Stratford we tend to use the Panthera D-SAD for a number of reasons:
- They are made out of medical nylon and are incredibly strong
- They are easy for you to adjust yourself so you don’t have to come into the office repeatedly
- They are 3D printed, so if they are lost or eaten by your dog, it is easy to print out another one
- They do not use any metal
- They tend to be more comfortable because the ‘connecting bars’ don’t stick out very far to the side as compared to other devices
Oral appliance therapy is an effective, non-invasive treatment option that can help reduce or eliminate snoring, improve breathing, and increase oxygen levels while you sleep. By improving sleep quality, oral appliance therapy can help you feel more rested and energized throughout the day. It can also help reduce the risk of serious health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke by improving breathing and oxygen levels.
Feel free to give us a call for a complimentary consultation to discuss oral appliance therapy in more detail and how Sleep Stratford can help you!
sleep@sleepstratford.com
(203)-378-3240
www.sleepstratford.com
1: American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine
2: Cleveland Clinic