Best Devices for Sleep Apnea: Oral Appliance Reviews

BlueSleep's sleep clinic performs sleep apnea and snoring evaluations via telemedicine by medical and dental sleep specialists. Make an appointment at bluesleep.com. We accept most medical insurances (Aetna, Cigna, Oxford, United, Blue Cross, GHI, Medicare, and others). After your initial appointment, BlueSleep may recommend a home sleep test which we ship to your home. Home sleep tests are covered by insurance only when prescribed by a health care provider and only when necessary due to a high suspicion of sleep apnea.

A second visit is scheduled to review the results of your sleep test and discuss treatment options. If you choose treatment with an oral appliance, you will either see our sleep apnea dentist for a digital scan of your teeth or we’ll ship a home impression (mold) kit. If you choose treatment with CPAP, we’ll arrange for a CPAP company to deliver the equipment to your home. Insurance usually covers this treatment, and the CPAP provider will verify coverage for you. Once you’ve received the CPAP, you’ll make an appointment with our sleep specialist to review the use and efficacy of the treatment.

Insurance coverage for oral appliance treatment requires a diagnosis of sleep apnea and symptoms other than just snoring. Our Billing Team gets a pre-authorization for in-network coverage of the treatment and communicates with you regarding any financial responsibility, which may include copays, coinsurance, and deductibles, prior to ordering the appliance. We’ll then ship or email the impressions to the dental lab or manufacturer to make your appliance. Blue Cross and Medicare limit the types of appliances they will pay for.  If you want a different type of appliance, not covered by Blue Cross or Medicare, this becomes a self-pay service.

We’ve made thousands of oral appliances for our patients, and we work with many manufacturers and dental labs including: Panthera, Prosomnus, Glidewell, Whole You, Somnomed, Dynaflex, Oventus, and others. We’ll ship the appliance to your home and schedule a virtual fitting session with our staff to instruct you on its use and care. If you require in person adjustments, we’ll schedule a visit in one of our facilities. The time it takes for you to receive your oral appliance depends on how quickly your insurance provides a pre-authorization, and how quickly the lab manufactures the appliance.  The process can take as little as 2 weeks, and as long as 3 months or more for some payers.

We’ll ship a home sleep test usually 4 to 8 weeks after you’ve started using the appliance and have adjusted it according to the quality of your sleep. We suggest using the "Snore Lab" app on your smartphone, in addition to observations from your bed partner, and your overall daytime function and energy levels; to help you titrate (adjust) your appliance. Virtual or in person visits are scheduled every 6-12 months thereafter to assure proper efficacy of the treatment, and proper fit of the appliance.

BlueSleep's sleep clinic offers home sleep testing and oral appliance therapy for patients with mild and moderate sleep apnea, and for patients with severe sleep apnea if their AHI is under 50 or don’t want to use CPAP. BlueSleep tests the effectiveness of treatment with home sleep testing over several nights if necessary. We’ve found that most patients prefer a treatment other than CPAP. Based on our research and results of our clinical trials, custom-made oral appliances for sleep apnea are as effective as CPAP, but patients are more likely to continue with the treatment long term. All of BlueSleep's sleep apnea treatments are FDA approved and follow current treatment guidelines.

Yes, in most cases. BlueSleep's sleep clinic has treated over 20,000 sleep patients with medical sleep apnea mouth guards, surgery and/or CPAP. Medical mouth guards, ordered by our dental sleep medicine providers and made by approved labs, are covered by medical insurance when the providers are in network with medical (not dental) insurance and when medically necessary (as long as you have sleep apnea and are symptomatic). In case you’ve chosen to be treated with a mouth guard, and it is not working or causing discomfort, then we’ll discuss alternative treatments. Our expertise is based on the large volume of patients we’ve treated and clinical research we’ve conducted on home sleep testing; and the efficacy of oral appliances for sleep apnea - all presented at medical meetings and or published in the medical literature.

Home sleep apnea testing technology has existed for close to 30 years. BlueSleep's sleep clinic conducted its own medical research on home sleep testing devices. Our research, as well as many others', has shown that home sleep testing is very reliable and in many cases is more likely to provide realistic information about your sleep than a one night sleep study done in a hospital or other type of facility.

Go to www.bluesleep.com to register/log in to your account. Once logged in, make sure a Valid payment method is up to date on your portal. Our Billing department will send you a notification through the portal, with the details of your Insurance response and Patient responsibility. You will then see your card on file charged for the service. For any charges over $200, the Billing Team will call the patient for authorization to charge a card.