Obstructive Sleep Apnea Specialist

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. You may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly, feel tired, or have a loss of focus, causing irritability even after a full night’s sleep.  

OSA is the most common type of sleep apnea and is a condition when breathing stops for 10 seconds or longer and occurs when throat muscles relax. Untreated, OSA has been linked to serious medical conditions such as heart disease; high blood pressure; diabetes and progressive brain damage.

How is OSA diagnosed?

The manner in which medical experts diagnose OSA is by having you complete a sleep study at a sleep center or hospital sleep lab. A sleep study is a noninvasive, overnight exam that allows doctors to monitor you while you sleep to see the activity in your brain and body. The good news is that very often there are nonsurgical solutions for those diagnosed with OSA and snoring that have good success in alleviating the problem.

What is sleep apnea treatment?

Treatment for sleep apnea often involves the CPAP machine. It works by keeping your nasal passages open while you sleep. However, you may find the machine difficult to adjust to.

Patients often complain about ongoing noise of the CPAP machine, making it difficult to sleep; the facial mask causing a claustrophobic effect; the movement of the facial mask while trying to sleep; the constant flow of moist air causing discomfort to your lungs, and the machine’s apparatus being quite cumbersome when traveling.

Dr. Mahallati has education and experience in the field of OSA and snoring solutions. As prosthodontists, he offers an effective, less intrusive oral appliance that you may find is more comfortable than the CPAP machine.

What are the OSA and snoring appliance?

The OSA and snoring appliance is an oral device that repositions your mandible (lower jaw) forward, allowing an open passageway for your throat while you sleep. As a result, it provides you with increased breathing capacity that allows uninterrupted sleep and eliminates snoring.

Customarily, the fabrication of your appliance requires three major steps:

• Consultation: First is a consultation between you and the doctor to discuss your symptoms and a review of your sleep study results. Then impressions are made of your upper and lower jaw in an effort to customize the device for a more comfortable and secure fit.
• Getting the appliance: Next, you receive the OSA appliance. Dr. Mahallati refines the positioning of the appliance in your mouth, ensuring comfort and efficiency.
• Following up: When you’ve had the appliance for 2-3 months, you have a follow-up with your specialist to check on the fit and your progress.

Patients rave about the improvement of their quality of life and increased energy level due to a good night’s rest with uninterrupted sleep after using their OSA and snoring appliance!

Is the OSA appliance covered by insurance?

Sometimes, certain dental procedures are covered by your medical insurance. For instance, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) appliances and obstructive sleep apnea appliances are at times covered under the durable medical equipment (DME) diagnosis description.

The team at the Center for Implant & Esthetic Dentistry recommends you call your medical insurance carrier and ask if it covers these types of oral appliances.

To learn more about the OSA oral appliance, call the Center for Implant & Esthetic Dentistry today or request a consultation online.