Treating snoring and OSA with the edentulous patient

For decades, treating the edentulous patient suffering from snoring and sleep apnoea (OSA) with oral sleep devices has been fraught with difficulty and frustration and therefore it has generally been accepted and widely reported in the literature that these people are not suitable for this type of treatment.

When CPAP and surgery are not tolerated or do not offer all the answers, many people are unfortunately left without any further evidence based options. Hence, the benefits of the SomnoDent MAS Edentulous are globally far reaching in the treatment of snoring and OSA.

Often, the edentulous are middle aged or elderly and unfortunately will also have some form of underlying degenerative joint disease. In the right hands, by being able to alter the vertical dimension, change the maxillary and mandibular cants, and slowly advancing the mandible, even many of the most severe cases of TMJ dysfunction can be stabilised and treated concurrently for OSA using the edentulous (and dentate) SomnoDent device.

With fine tuning of development testing and results of efficacy being gathered over the past 9 months, I have now used the edentulous device in many varied applications ranging from the simple snorer right through to the complex severe OSA patient suffering concomitant chronic degenerative and intracapsular TMJ disorders with promising results.

In addition, several patients have successfully been simultaneously co-treated with CPAP and the edentulous oral device. With only a preferred 6 lower teeth (3-3) in the mandible as a recommended minimum pre-requisite, the SomnoDent MAS Edentulous is simply the most exciting thing to come onto the market in many years and has the potential to offer thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide an evidence-based treatment option until now, thought to be nigh on impossible.

As one of my patients, Barry Kilby of Launceston, Tasmania, said: "I suffer from severe sleep apnoea and CPAP was recommended. I found it to be very uncomfortable, intrusive and claustrophobic however. When I looked around for an alternative treatment for my sleep apnoea, I met Dr Eldridge. As I have full false upper teeth, Dr Eldridge fitted me with a SomnoDent MAS Edentulous. After some tests, we reached a very good result. My device works perfectly and my partner says that my snoring has improved out of sight. Many thanks to Dr Eldridge for his persistence and to SomnoMed."