NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MARCH 2014
tionnaire, Body Mass Index (BMI) calculation, and neck measurement (15 inches for a woman and 17 inches for a man being more
likely to have OSA), that can identify those patients at risk. Those
patients at risk need an overnight sleep study (polysomnogram).
This study can be conveniently performed in the comfort of their
home or at a sleep lab. The sleep study measures the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI). This is the average number of partial and complete
pauses in breathing that occur per hour of sleep. The study is interpreted and diagnosed by a sleep physician. Different AHI results
indicate different levels of sleep apnea.
For those patients diagnosed with mild or moderate sleep apnea,
Oral Appliance Therapy from a dental sleep specialist is the treatment of choice. For those with severe sleep apnea, the gold standard
treatment is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
machine. Although the CPAP machine is very effective, compliance
is usually less than 50 percent because it’s cumbersome and noisy,
so for these patients Oral Appliance Therapy works very well.
An oral appliance repositions the lower jaw and tongue in a more
protrusive position during sleep. The device serves to open the airway by indirectly pulling the tongue forward, and making it, and
other structures, more stable so as to prevent them from blocking
the airway. Oral appliances are comfortable and easy to wear, taking only a couple of weeks to become acclimated. Oral Appliance
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Therapy is reversible, non-invasive, and the devices are small and
convenient to travel with.
In order to achieve the best treatment results, it is best to combine
therapies, such as weight loss, exercise, avoidance of alcohol and
tobacco and sleeping on your side to further reduce the severity of
sleep apnea. Weight loss helps reduce the excess mass tissue located in the back of your throat, and when your