Our office has been helping patients sleep better for over 20 years. Sleep appliances made by your dentist are not a new thing, even though you may have never heard of it!

Oral appliances for sleep apnea are dental devices, or mouthpieces, that you wear in your mouth to keep your airway open while you sleep. Healthcare providers use them to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

With OSA, your upper airway is blocked partly or completely when you’re sleeping. The reduced airflow triggers your brain to wake you up just enough to keep breathing. The cycle of restricted airflow, waking and falling asleep again, continues throughout the night. These episodes stop you from sleeping soundly and prevent your vital organs from getting enough oxygen. Untreated, OSA can lead to serious health conditions and is potentially fatal.

Oral appliances, also called oral appliance therapy, treat OSA. They hold your mouth in a position that makes sure you get enough airflow. They help you breathe better and reduce how often OSA wakes you up at night.

reference: up.https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21129-oral-appliance-therapy-for-sleep-apnea

What to Expect during a sleep appliance visit…

We work closely with the Fairbanks Sleep Center and once you have had a sleep study completed, we are able to begin working with you. Your sleep center Doctor will refer you to us, and we can start the process!

We are able to bill medical insurance for your sleep appliance, however there are some restrictions so please make sure you have current medical insurance information available. This is very imporant for us to have so we can verify benefits and provide an accurate financial estimate.

• Prior to your first appointment you will be receiving a link to fill out our medical forms online. It’s very important to complete these forms prior to your appointment.

• Your first appointment will be about an hour long. We will be estalishing records and reviewing the forms you filled out online.

• We will take a Panoramic radiograph that provides us with a 3D Cone Beam CT scan

• We utilize iTero digital technology to take intraoral 3D scans of your mouth so there are no impressions. We only take a small bite registration with impression materials.

• Our Doctors will perform a comprehensive head, neck and muscle examination along with an oral examination to confirm the health of your teeth and make sure you are a good candidate for an oral sleep appliance.

What happens after my initial visit?

• After you initial visit and financial arrangements have been settled, your sleep appliance will arrive in 10-14 days.

• We will schedule you for a delivery appointment where we will confirm fit of the sleep appliance and review proper care and maintenance protocols.
  

We Recommend Sleep Tracking

It can be very dificult to tell initially if your sleep appliance is working. At some point your sleep doctor may want you to do a follow up sleep study while using your sleep appliance to measure changes. But you can also do some of this at home with an app! There are several we recommend, such as Snore Lab, Snore Control or Sleep Cycle. You can always download another app of your choice to help tracking.

Some other indicators your sleep appliance is working would be asking for feed back from a partner or family member that may notice a decrease in your snoring or wakefullness during the nights. Patients also report feeling more energetic and less sleepy during the day or waking naturally before their alarms. These are all indicators patients are getting a better night sleep with their sleep appliance!