No two human faces are alike, and neither is the mouth, tongue, throat, and trachea; nor personalities, age, medical conditions, or expectations. That's simply why in some cases one treatment will work better than another for sleep apnea and snoring. There is no way to predict 100% if any of the existing treatments will be successful. In the case of oral appliance therapy (a mouth guard that fits on the teeth during sleep and is removed after sleep); one of the predictors of success is a view of the inside of the deep part of the throat with a small camera at the end of a fiber (office based nasolaryngoscopy). This is performed by Ear Nose and Throat specialists in the office as part of the standard examination.
We are currently studying the efficacy of oral appliance therapy by using compliance trackers built-in to the appliances - the EFFECTS study*. Oral appliances are successful in about 75 to 90% of patients.
*Stern J, Lee K, Kuhn D. Presented at the annual World Sleep Meeting, Prague Czech Republic. October 7-12 2017.
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