With Oral Appliance Therapy, Patient, Bed Partner Report Greater Well-being

By Peter Blais, RPSGT

Treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with an oral appliance has a positive influence not only on patients but on bed partners as well, according to a study published in the Swedish Dental Journal.

The study by Ake Tegelberg of the department of stomatognathic physiology at Central Hospital in Västerås, Sweden, and coauthors is titled “Bed partners’ and patients’ experiences after treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with an oral appliance.” The researchers gave a 15-question survey to both patients (whose sleep disorder was reduced more than 50% from baseline values via an oral appliance) and their bed partners.

Both patients and bed partners reported improvement in general well-being, physical strength, and mental energy, between 70% to 80% for patients and 55% to 68% for bed partners sharing the same bedroom. Similar results were found for concentration ability, joyfulness, and strength of effort in social intercourse, as well as decreased daytime sleepiness, improvement in the feeling of getting enough sleep, and reduced nocturia, the study found.

American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine board member Grant D. Hensley, DDS, who was not involved in the study, says it is important to get feedback from bed partners as well as patients when it comes to OSA treatment. “Many OSA patients are unaware of the presence or severity of their snoring and apnea events,” says Hensley, who manages a dental practice in Franklin, Tenn, that offers oral appliance therapy for the treatment of snoring and OSA. “If they have a bed partner, they are generally aware of the sleep disturbance they are causing and, therefore, will be more willing to seek sleep solutions and include their partner in the treatment process.

“Additionally, in the absence of objective monitoring during the calibration phase of treatment (adjustments of the appliance), the bed partner can offer valuable feedback. Monitoring in this fashion can lead the patient to a mandibular position that brings relief to sleep apnea symptoms such as snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness prior to the follow-up objective testing done by a sleep physician.”

Asked how dentists can use this information to help treat their sleep apnea patients, Hensley replies, “By having a bed partner monitor signs and symptoms of the OSA patient, the calibration of the appliance can proceed more effectively and efficiently and make final calibration in the sleep lab simpler to achieve. Plus, by adding an intimate ‘team member’ to the patient’s care team, the patient will likely improve his or her chance of long-term compliance and successful treatment.”

Hensley concludes he is not at all surprised by the positive feedback from oral appliance use reported by both patients and bed partners in this study. “These results seem reasonable and support other studies regarding the effectiveness of oral appliance therapy with OSA patients,” Hensley says.