Sleep Apnea Diagnosis and Treatment

A Sleep Apnea device or appliance is used to treat sleep apnea. It replaces wearing a CPAP at night. It has several different names that all typically mean the same thing. These names include a Mandibular Advancement Device MAD or OAT for Occlusal Appliance Therapy.  This information on Sleep Apnea Treatment was created in our Sleep Apnea Snoring office.

Sleep apnea treatment device, Mandibular Advancement Device MAD or OAT for Occlusal Appliance Therapy

Seek Specialists help for sleep apnea treatment

At The Center for Special Dentistry® we have two specialists who provide sleep apnea treatment. Singularly their academic interests are varied. One is a dental oncologist who focuses on treating head and neck cancer patients. Particularly head and neck cancer patients can have very complex problems with breathing. Therefore a dental oncologist has significant skills to treat Sleep Apnea and Snoring problems in non-cancer patients as well. Separately our orthodontist’s honors thesis at Harvard Dental was on treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.

Next these two specialists are backed by a large team of 14 other dentists and specialists plus lab technicians in one office location. Lastly we have an affiliated team of 12 medical doctors in our building. This is because many patients who need sleep apnea treatment also may have other medical problems.

Video text on sleep apnea treatment

This is Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman at The Center for Special Dentistry in New York talking about a mandibular advancement device which is used to treat sleep apnea in people who do not want to wear a CPAP at night. This mandibular advancement device, also referred to as an OAT, Occlusal Appliance Therapy, is used to bring your lower jaw forward slightly while you sleep, which will open up the airway.

When you are having this type of work done with our specialists in our practice, you first must have a sleep study performed by a sleep medicine physician. You then bring the results of that test back to our office for analysis; we then take molds to have an appliance made for you. After it’s delivered at the subsequent visit, you will then have a period of weeks to habituate to it and then you will go back to your sleep medicine physician to see if the sleep apnea has been dramatically reduced with this device. When your sleep apnea treatment is successfully confirmed, then it’s safe to discontinue the use of your CPAP!