With about a third of our life spent sleeping, it is important to maximise its quality to enhance our day to day lives in the best way possible. Sleep medicine is a complex area which requires in-depth assessment of each person to determine the best way to manage and treat the symptoms. It is equally important for you to understand how everything relates to your issues which is covered with detailed education and demonstrations.
1. Oral Appliance Therapy Consultation
Each consultation involves:
- Detailed information and education
- Outlined process for diagnosis
- Treatment options explained
- Example demo models of different oral appliances
- Comprehensive oral, airway and jaw examinations
- Organisation of referral for sleep study or ENT specialist assessment for diagnosis (if required)
The creation of an oral appliance for obstructive sleep apnoea therapy (OSA) requires a proper diagnosis by sleep study with full results and treatment recommendations. Snoring issues in the absence of any high risk OSA signs can be treated with oral appliances on referral by your medical practitioner if they deem a sleep study not required.
If private health insurance rebates are to be claimed, a sleep study is considered a requirement by all health insurance policies.
2. Impressions, Analysis and Measurements
Once a suitable oral appliance has been agreed upon, state-of-the-art 3D scanning of your teeth are completed along with certain measurements of your jaw advancement so the laboratory can begin creation of your customized precision-fit oral appliance.
Once this has been completed, the appliance can take between 2-3 weeks to be finished depending on the type of appliance.
3. Take home your oral appliance
Once the oral appliance has arrived back from the laboratory, the final fit will be checked, adjusted if needed and detailed instructions will be given on how to clean and care for it.
Initially some time will be needed to get used to the appliance, and then it will be slowly adjusted forward as needed to gain further success.
4. Regular reviews
Regular 12-monthly reviews are highly recommended to check the condition of your oral appliance for warranty purposes and monitor for any teeth movement/bite changes.