Sleep Apnea

So one of the most contemporary subjects in dentistry today is sleep-related breathing disorders. That can be something as simple as snoring, more significantly to have apneic events or events where you actually stop breathing while you sleep. The American Dental Association as well as the American College of Prosthodontists have encouraged we as dentists to start to screen all our patients for the likelihood of sleep-related breathing disorders. So basically what happens is we screen all our patients, and what that does is takes several different vectors of sleepiness, snoring, pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, etc., and assigns a risk, and basically that is, you know, a low risk, a moderate risk, a high risk, or severe risk. It's a screening tool. From that screening tool, if someone is testing in that, you know, moderate to high range, monitor severe range, then a full-fledged sleep study is indicated. And that is typically done by a sleep physician, someone who's certified in Dental Sleep Medicine. It's an MD, a medical doctor. That can be done in the privacy of your own home. Basically, what happens is a questionnaire is filled out in our practice and transferred then to a sleep physician, who via telemedicine or a personal visit to the physician's office, will go through that questionnaire, certainly develop a diagnosis based on their examination and that questionnaire, and determine whether they are truly a low, moderate, high, or severe risk. With that, if they are a high or severe risk, then a typical treatment therapy is CPAP. If it is something that is of low or moderate risk, oftentimes in lieu of CPAP, the physician will say that you do qualify for a dental sleep appliance, which is an appliance that basically takes the lower jaw, moves it forward to open the airway to allow a more undisturbed avenue for breathing and eliminating snoring at the same time. We're very fortunate that we've taken a very strong interest in this subject matter. We've been awarded the Diplomate status by the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, which is their highest level of recognition for providers of this service in dentistry. And so we're very proud to be one of the very small number nationally and certainly a very small number regionally that have achieved that level of understanding. So with that, we feel confident that our, again, part of our A team would be the dedicated sleep physicians that do nothing but treat dental sleep issues or sleep-related breathing disorders whatever they may be, to further help our patients to be that much more healthful. So it's something that you will start to hear more of. Your physicians will probably make mention, I would hope, on physical examinations when you go in for your physicals. If you're being treated by a cardiologist, I'm sure this subject has come up. If you have any sort of pulmonary disease, I'm sure the subject has come up. And certainly, it's nice to know that you've got a solution other than CPAP if that's an opportunity the physician feels is worthy to have a dental sleep appliance fabricated.