Sleep Apnea Treatment
A dental device that holds the airway open at night.
Oral appliance therapy: a custom-made device, worn like a mouth guard, that brings the lower jaw forward. Evaluated alongside your own physician and a sleep study, never in place of them.
Chapter 01
A dental device, not a machine
Oral appliance therapy is a custom-made device, built for the shape of your own mouth, that you wear at night. It works something like a mouth guard, holding the lower jaw slightly forward so the airway behind it has more room to stay open.
Because it is custom-made rather than a generic guard, the fit is worked out at the office and adjusted from there rather than handed over off a shelf.
A treatment room at Connecticut Dental Group with chairside monitors and a sink station
CPAP is the other option, and it stays on the table
The two paths people are usually offered are CPAP, a machine that uses continuous positive air pressure through a mask to keep the airway open, and oral appliance therapy, the device described above. Neither is presented here as the better choice for every case.
Which one fits a given patient is worked out with a physician, based on a sleep study, not decided at a dental office on its own.
Chapter 03
A physician and a sleep study come first
An oral appliance evaluation here is meant to sit alongside a conversation with your physician and a sleep study, not replace either one. That is the office's own recommendation, not a formality to get through before a device is made.
If a sleep study has already been done, bring the results along. If one has not, that conversation with your physician is the right place to start before an appliance is fitted.
Starting the conversation
Call the office to ask whether an oral appliance evaluation makes sense for your situation, and to talk through where things stand with a physician or a sleep study.
Someone at the front desk can walk through what happens next, whether that is scheduling the evaluation itself or pointing you toward the physician conversation first.
Oral appliance therapy, evaluated alongside your physician and a sleep study, not in place of them. Call (203) 372-4200 to ask whether it fits your situation.
Before you start
A physician and a sleep study, alongside this evaluation.
That order matters more than which device you end up wearing. Bring what your physician and sleep study have already told you, and the evaluation here starts from there instead of from scratch.
Talk about an evaluationAsk whether an oral appliance is worth discussing with your physician.
Call during opening hours and a person will talk it through with you, sleep study or not yet.