If you’re considering an oral sleep appliance, or if you’ve already tried one (or more) but haven’t gotten good results, you need to understand that your sleep dentist can really make a big difference in how well they work. Here’s why you need to take care when selecting your sleep dentist.
Proper Analysis of Your Airway
Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a collapse of your airway that blocks off the flow of air. But there are many potential ways that your airway can collapse, and each of them can respond better to different types of oral appliances. To get good results with oral appliance therapy, your dentist has to understand exactly how and why your airway is closing.
Listening to Your Concerns
One of the benefits of oral appliances is that they can be more comfortable and convenient than CPAP treatment, but they all come with tradeoffs. Finding the right tradeoffs means that your sleep dentist has to listen to you to understand which factors matter most to you. This is especially true if you’ve already tried an oral appliance and have a good sense of what you like and what you don’t.
Finding the Right Appliance
A sleep dentist has to be able to take the analysis of your airway and your concerns and put them together to determine the sleep appliance that will treat your sleep apnea, and will be comfortable and convenient for you. This means a sleep dentist should have knowledge and experience with many different oral appliances so they can match you up with the ideal appliance.
Helping You Succeed with Treatment
Your sleep dentist will help you get your oral appliance fitted so that it’s comfortable. He will help you understand how to adjust it on your own as necessary. He will also give you some tips and tricks to help you get adjusted.
Being able to do this depends on having extensive training and experience with the oral appliance, but it also depends on your sleep dentist’s empathy and compassion–they’ve listened to the problems previous patients have had and overcome.
If you are really looking to succeed with your oral appliance therapy it depends on your choice of sleep dentist. In the Omaha-Lincoln area, no sleep dentist is as experienced, trained, and well-known, and well-respected as our Omaha sleep dentists. Please call (402) 493-4175 today to schedule an appointment with him at the Advanced Dental Sleep Center.
