General Practitioners

The dangers of obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring are increasingly becoming well known to the general public. With this awareness comes an interest from potential sufferers and you, as the general practitioner, need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge, screening tools and support to help deal with this serious condition. As the gatekeeper of family health most of these patients will approach you first regarding their obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring. You must then decide to personally treat, refer to a specialist for a sleep study or send them to a dentist to have a mandibular advancement splint fitted.

Most sufferers benefit from weightloss but lack the energy, due to sleep deprivation, to get on a threadmill or play sports. With CPAP or oral appliance therapy, the sufferer will quickly experience proper, deep sleep again so he or she regains the energy and confidence to ask you regarding weight management. However, with the NHS struggling to cope with demand for its sleep diagnostics and therapy services - there are currently over a million undiagnosed and untreated whilst hundreds of thousands are added to this annually and the NHS can only treat up to 50,000 of them - when you refer a suspected sufferer to a sleep clinic, they could be waiting many weeks, if not months for a diagnosis.

There is no such bottleneck at the UK's dental practices and these dentists, partnering with Intus Healthcare, are ready to take the weight off the NHS's shoulders. Each SomnoDent certified dentist has received documented training in the field of dental sleep medicine and is well equipped to identify, pre-screen, refer and treat sufferers of sleep-related breathing disorders such as snoring and sleep apnoea.

Speak to your local dentist about raising awareness in your area about oral appliance therapy for the treatment of your patients. Or contact Intus Healthcare (see "Contact Us") to learn how you can pre-screen your own patients and refer them for an NHS or private sleep study.