Abstract
Large torus mandibularis can be a cause of obstructive sleep apnea （OSA） because the tongue is shifted backward due to decreased oral cavity volume. We report a case in which the severity of OSA was reduced after removal of the torus mandibularis in a patient with severe OSA.
A 62-year-old male patient came to our hospital with a chief complaint of right-sided mandibular molar pain and bilateral lingual prominence of the mandible. The patient also complained of snoring, headache, and xerostomia upon awakening, so he was referred to a respiratory physician for overnight polysomnography. As a result, he was diagnosed with severe OSA with torus mandibularis, as his AHI was 70.0 times/hour. After torus mandibularis resection, the tongue position was corrected from posterior to anterior and the symptoms of OSA improved, but severe OSA remained with an AHI of 33.3 times per hour. The patient was not obese and had no adenoid hypertrophy or nasal disease, but the skeletal factor of mandibular retrusion was thought to be the cause of OSA. Therefore, treatment with an oral appliance was performed. In this case, the cause of OSA was thought to involve a decrease in oral cavity volume due to torus mandibularis as well as mandibular retrusion.
