Healthy Sleep is Invaluable

Offer the gold standard in oral appliance therapy - your patients will be grateful.

How to grow your practise through dental sleep medicine

Approximately 2 - 4% of your adult patients suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and as many as 25% could be habitual snorers. With figures rising steadily and the NHS system unable to cope with the growing demand for treatment of these conditions, dental sleep medicine offers you an excellent opportunity to expand your practice into this field. As a leading provider of education and homecare solutions for sleep-disordered breathing patients, Intus Healthcare can help you to do this.

In a dental practise where around twenty patients are seen every day, at least one may be helped with oral appliance therapy. The average SomnoDent certified dentist fits three splints every month, therefore adding a significant amount to the bottom line of their practise. With a million untreated sleep apnoea sufferers and the NHS struggeling to cope, GDPs are at the forefront of identifying sufferers and treating them with clinically validated and proven therapy products.

Why the SomnoDent MAS?

There are dozens of oral appliances designed for either just snoring or also sleep apnoea. Even though they all rely on the same principle of mandibular advancement, each splint has its own unique features and benefits (and negatives) to the patient and fitting dentist.

As a homecare provider of therapeutic products for sufferers of sleep-disordered breathing, Intus Healthcare have been supplying CPAP, the traditional treatment for sleep apnoea, to many patients for years. Because CPAP achieves a compliance rate of 80% maximum, there is a significant number of patients who end up left untreated. With the long list of co-morbidities and enormous drop in quality of life for these untreated patients, we found this situation to be unacceptable and set out to find the very best CPAP alternative. We have studied many mandibular advancement appliances and can tell you straight, the SomnoDent MAS is the best there is.

Common appliance problems and how SomnoDent tackles each

Let's look at the most common problems with mandibular advancement devices and see why the SomnoDent avoids each one of these.

Uncomfortable - Possibly the number one complaint by splint users is that the appliance is uncomfortable to wear. Screws are sticking out, elbow joints pierce the cheeks on the inside, the bulk of the mouth piece creates a large vertical opening, upper and lower plates are locked etc. etc. With the SomnoDent MAS, the patient won't experience any of this. The SomnoDent oral sleep appliance is custom fitted, exactly to the patient's dentition. There is no excess material and the vertical opening is as little as 5mm. The upper and lower plates are not connected so the patient is free to open their mouth, speak and drink. There is also plenty of lateral movement, preventing the claustrophobic experience often found with inferior splints. The SomnoDent MAS Flex has a soft inner lining so the plates 'hug' the teeth for a smooth yet firm fit.

Poor Retention - Poor fitting splints can drop out of the mouth during the night. This would immediately revert the mandible's position to where it is naturally so snoring and apnoea events would return immediately. For patient compliance and acceptance, retention is vital. The SomnoDent is custom-fit and precision-engineered to the highest standards so a great retention is ensured throughout the night and throughout the splint's lifetime.

TMJ Pain - With appliances that don't offer precise titration, TMJ issues may develop. The SomnoDent MAS allows mandibular protrusion in a stepless fashion so the mandible can be advanced in very small increments, easing the joints into their new position, avoiding excessive discomfort. Because of the minimal amount of material, the vertical opening stays small, avoiding the lower jaw to sit at an uncomfortable angle.

Breakages - Splints with screws, elbow joints, elastic bands, telescopic arms, locked plates, moving parts and so on all increase the chance of breakages. Especially in bruxers, the forces excerted on these fragile components during the night lead to breakages and expensive lab time to repair the splint. The SomnoDent MAS has no such moving parts and the upper and lower plate are not connected so the upper and lower jaw can move freely without stress on fragile and expensive parts. Fewer breakages means happier patients and reduced costs.

Occlusal Change - Poor fitting splints and those that do not spread the forces on all available teeth and molars increase the chance and severity of occlusal change and bite alteration. Especially with splints that are not custom-fit, this can be a real issue. Because of its unique quality control - a central lab makes all the SomnoDent splints - and dentist training and certification, a quality and safe fit is achieved with every SomnoDent MAS. The SomnoDent spreads forces over all available teeth so chances of tooth movement are minimal. Leading dentists in the field of oral appliance therapy have fitted as many as 2,500 splints of various makes and found over time that the SomnoDent offers the least amount of occlusal change possible.

Excessive Salivation - This often happens with splints that interfere with the tongue's natural position and those that prevent full lip-seal. The SomnoDent MAS has minimal bulk and does not prevent the tongue from being where it wants to be. This minimal amount of material also allows full lip-seal, making it much more comfortable to wear and preventing hypersalivation to compensate for a dry mouth.

Mucosal Dryness - In splints where the mouth remains open and full lip-seal cannot be achieved, the mouth may become very dry. This presents the wearer of the splint with extreme discomfort throughout the night. The SomnoDent allows the patient to close the mouth fully, avoiding this dry mouth sensation.

Inability to Mouth-breathe - Users of bulky appliances often report being unable to breathe through their mouth easily. Especially with splints that lock the upper and lower plate, airflow through the mouth can be reduced to a point where the patient struggles to breathe. As many sleep apnoea sufferers are immuno-deprived, they often experience nasal congestion and sinus issues. Being able to breathe through the mouth is very important. Because the SomnoDent MAS does not lock the upper and lower plate and hence allows the patient to freely open the mouth, mouth-breathing is straight-forward and comfortable.

Limited Titration / Adjustment - Most splints offer only a limited range of advancement and some can only do so in set increments. The SomnoDent allows the patient and the dentist to easily adjust the protrusion in very fine increments. From its initial fabrication (usually at 70% of maximum protrusion) the splint allows for a further 5.5mm of anterior and 0.5mm of posterior advancement with the help of a simple mechanism.

Claustrophobic Experience - Many splint wearers report a claustrophobic feeling, especially with mandibular advancement devices which lock the upper and lower arch together in place. Just the fact they cannot even make themselves heard means many feel uncomfortable wearing the device, having a negative impact on their sleep (ironically). With the SomnoDent MAS, patients are free to open their mouth and it offers plenty of lateral movement too.

These are just some of the main reasons why we, dentists and patients favour the SomnoDent MAS over other oral sleep appliances. When we compare the SomnoDent with a CPAP machine and mask, the differences are even bigger.

Unique, Patented & Internationally Approved

The splint's unique design, with its patented fin-coupling system and soft inner lining, has been ISO certified, CE approved and FDA approved for both snoring and sleep apnoea. The SomnoDent MAS's efficacy has been proven many times and makes it a suitable therapeutic product even for severe sleep apnoea patients who didn't get on with CPAP.

Thorough Training & Swiss Certification

Before a dentist can identify suitable patients and fit a SomnoDent MAS, they have to be fully trained and certified. This is both to ensure the dentist is competent in the field of dental sleep medicine whilst conforming to Dental Protection standards, as well as to ensure the product's high standards are maintained, allowing it to be fully ISO compliant. Intus Healthcare train dentists in a one day course covering all necessary topics required for the dentist to feel comfortable with treating obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring. After this course, which qualifies for verifiable CPD, the dentist is fully competent and SomnoDent certified by an independent Swiss quality service institute so he or she is ready to start offering oral appliance therapy with the SomnoDent MAS or any other custom-fit appliance.

Ongoing Support from an Experienced Healthcare Partner

Where with other splints the dentists are out on their own, looking to find suitable patients, by partnering with Intus Healthcare, the UK's SomnoDent distributor, each dentist can rely on an experienced healthcare partner to help them grow their practise through dental sleep medicine.

Certified dentists will be listed here on the SomnoDent UK website and Intus Healthcare will refer its non-compliant CPAP patients to these dentists for the fitting of a SomnoDent splint. Intus Healthcare also offer dentists their diagnostics services so dentists, in line with Dental Protection guidelines, can leave diagnosis of sleep disorders to a specialist sleep service who unlike the NHS, do strongly believe in oral appliance therapy. This way the dentist can be sure that when they refer a patient for a sleep study, this patient does not automatically get talked into a CPAP device if an oral sleep appliance is suitable. With a sleep study by Intus Healthcare, the patient will be offered the chance to book an appointment with the referring dentist after confirmation of sleep-disordered breathing.

Intus Healthcare deal with tens of thousands of sleep apnoea sufferers and know their needs and wants. We help dentists create awareness, with patient selection through clinically recognised questionnaires, with effective marketing plans and streamlined follow-up protocols, ensuring the patient gets the best treatment possible. We will also let you know how to approach nearby GPs, hospitals and sleep clinics so you can let them know you have received documented training and are ready to treat patients. With Intus Healthcare and the SomnoDent MAS, the dentist is not alone. We actively help dentists make the most of dental sleep medicine and make sure our network of dentist stay up to date with the latest standards, protocols and guidelines.

Remove the mystery from dental sleep medicine, choose Intus Healthcare as your oral appliance therapy partner today.

See "Contact Us" on how to get in touch.