2007 Volume 70 Issue 2 Pages 175-179
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a highly prevalent sleep related disease. It can interfere with work, causing accidents when the person dozes off, and disrupt sleep because of violent snoring, apnea, and difficult breathing. It also can cause clinical symptoms such as excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and fatigue. Since the sleep center was established in 1998 at the Osaka Kaisei Hospital, we have treated OSAS with oral appliances (OA) using a team approach. This report gives the results of seven years of treatment using OA at the Departments of Dentistry and Oral Surgery of Osaka Kaisei Hospital.
After Japanese National Health Insurance coverage of treatment with OA was initiated in April 2004, there has been a two-fold increase in the number of cases treated. OA for OSAS is a popular treatment because it is simple and non-invasive. It is important that we establish the efficacy, long-term compliance, and complications of this treatment.
