Oral Appliance Therapy Simple, Effective Treatment for Sleep Apnea
Have you been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea? The team at Advanced Dental Sleep Medicine, in consultation with your sleep physician, may recommend the use of custom oral appliance therapy (OAT). OAT is a proven treatment option with great therapeutic results and better tolerance than many other treatment options available.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is caused by collapsed tissue that partially or fully blocks the airway. This hinders the natural breathing process and can occur multiple times each night. Patients with OSA often experience symptoms such as fragmented sleep and daytime fatigue. These can negatively impact your quality of life and can lead to the development of more serious conditions.
Oral appliance therapy is often used in the treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders, as prescribed by your sleep physician.
How Oral Appliance Therapy Works
Oral appliance therapy involves the fabrication of a custom appliance similar to a sports guard or orthodontic retainer. It is custom-designed to move your lower jaw slightly forward into a comfortable position. By pushing the lower jaw forward, your airway can expand. This minimizes interrupted breathing and alleviates the frustrating symptoms associated with OSA. Oral appliance therapy is one of the most effective and comfortable forms of treatment for OSA.
Designing and Creating Your Custom Oral Appliance Sleep apnea oral appliance
Designing an oral appliance that meets your individual needs takes expertise and skill. Dr. Reza Radmand and our other dental sleep experts use advanced technology and techniques in the design process to ensure a precise and comfortable fit. Using the information obtained during your sleep study, combined with the findings of his examination and x-rays, he will determine the measurements needed for your oral appliance.
Our goals are to ensure the most comfortable fit possible while optimizing the position of your jaw and mouth to keep your airway clear. After taking impressions of your dentition, along with other pertinent measurements, we will forward the information to our specialized laboratory for the fabrication of your custom oral appliance.
Immediate Improvement With a Temporary Appliance
While waiting for the fabrication of the definitive custom oral sleep appliance, which may take up to several weeks, Dr. Radmand and his team can provide you with a temporary oral appliance. While this will not provide the same level of relief from your sleep apnea that you will experience with your custom-made appliance, it can help alleviate some of your symptoms in the meantime.
Learn More About the Simplicity of Oral Appliance Therapy
If you have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and are looking for a simple and effective treatment option, contact our sleep medicine facility to learn more about oral appliance therapy. Use our online form or call (617) 307-1183 today.
Discover the Benefits of Oral Appliance Therapy for Sleep Apnea
The benefits of oral appliance therapy lie in its simplicity and custom design. Using the information taken from your oral examination, x-rays, and impressions, our dental sleep specialists will order the proper custom oral appliance that will provide you with the optimal results needed to treat your sleep-related breathing disorder.
The benefits of oral appliance therapy lie in its simplicity and custom design.
Non-Invasive Treatment Option
Other sleep apnea treatment options are more invasive than oral appliance therapy. Positive airway pressure (PAP), for example, requires patients to wear a mask over their nose or mouth as they sleep. This is often uncomfortable for patients and may result in low compliance, thus making the treatment ineffective.
Other more invasive treatments include surgery. In some children, sleep apnea is caused by inflamed or very large adenoids and tonsils. For these patients, undergoing an adenotonsillectomy can help alleviate the symptoms of sleep apnea. Orthodontic intervention is another treatment option for patients whose misaligned teeth or jaws are contributing to their sleep apnea symptoms.
Positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy requires patients to wear a mask over their nose or their entire face as they sleep.
Oral Appliance Therapy
Have you been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea? The team at Advanced Dental Sleep Medicine, in consultation with your sleep physician, may recommend the use of custom oral appliance therapy (OAT). OAT is a proven treatment option with great therapeutic results and better tolerance than many other treatment options available.
A Comfortable, Effective Alternative
Oral appliance therapy is customized to fit comfortably over your natural teeth or prosthetic dentition teeth, just as a mouth guard or orthodontic retainer would. The oral appliance moves your lower jaw into a slightly forward, comfortable position, which helps the tongue away from the back of the throat and the airway open. This significantly improves snoring, gasping for air and any breathing interruptions. The majority of our patients adapt comfortably to the use of a custom oral appliance. Oral appliance therapy boasts a great long-term compliance rate, allowing patients to sleep more restfully and feel refreshed upon waking.
Improve Your Sleep Apnea Symptoms Today
If you are trying to determine which sleep apnea treatment is right for you, trust an experienced team at Advanced Dental Sleep Medicine. Our doctors and staff are passionate about helping our patients improve their health. Contact our office and schedule an appointment by using our simple online form or by calling (617) 307-1183.