Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

James E. Eckhart, DDS

It has been a pleasure to participate as contributing editor to this edition of the Journal of the California Dental Association, which focuses on dentistry's role in sleep-disordered breathing. The intention was to provide an educational service to compensate for the general absence of this information in dental school curricula.

Rob Veis, DDS, has provided a dental overview of sleep-disordered breathing, introducing key definitions, giving reasons dentists would want to be involved, outlining a diagnostic protocol, summarizing treatment options, discussing decision-making factors, sketching procedural basics, and suggesting how to obtain more information.

Jerald H. Simmons, MD, has written about sleep physiology and sleep-disordered breathing, expanding on the diagnostic protocols available and how a dentist might participate intelligently.

Lawrence W. Kneisley, MD, has described medical (nondental) treatments for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

Michael W. Marshall, DDS, provides information about various surgical options available for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

Because there are dentists who frequently and confidently provide low-cost oral appliances for snoring without apparent consideration of the medical significances of snoring, two nationally prominent dental experts were invited to discuss opposite sides of the topic of whether a dentist should treat snoring patients independently of the sleep medicine profession. The reader is encouraged to read both articles and decide the answer for himself or herself.

Lawrence I. Barsh, DMD, is past president of the Sleep Disorders Dental Society and has presented herein some good reasons for cooperation with the sleep medicine community.

W. Keith Thornton, DDS, the current president of the Sleep Disorders Dental Society, has provided logical reasons why dentists might provide sleep-disordered breathing treatment without supervision from sleep medicine, but the reader must read carefully the level of knowledge and competence in his model.

Finally, the contributing editor has presented a study of many commercially available oral appliances, suggesting a set of criteria for evaluating them, and presenting findings of their strengths, weaknesses, and peculiarities.

It is hoped that these articles will enlighten the dental community and increase the level of care of sleep-disordered breathing.

Author

James E. Eckhart, DDS

To request a printed copy of this article, please contact CDA Publications Department, (916) 443-3382, Ext. 4640.