The purpose of this study was to investigate patients with chief complaints of snoring and/or sleep apnea in our clinic for the past decade. The subjects were 881 patients (637 males and 244 females) with a mean age ± SD of 48 ± 15 years. Mean body mass index was 24.7 kg/m2. Overnight polysomnographic evaluation was performed in 563 subjects, and the mean value of apnea hypopnea index was 23.6 times/h. The proportion of males with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) was 69.9%, which was higher than that of females (47.6%), and the incidence of moderate to severe OSAS increased with age in both males and females. For treatment, an oral appliance (OA) was provided for 369 subjects (41.9%) and surgical treatment such as laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty or orthognathic surgery was performed in 41 subjects (4.7%) in our clinic. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure was used to treat 154 subjects (17.5%), and 67 subjects (7.6%) were treated for nasal congestion and/or tonsillar hypertrophy by an otorhinolaryngologist. The remaining 250 subjects (28.4%) refused treatment for sleep disordered breathing. The efficacy rate in subjects treated with an OA was 60.5%, though the efficacy rate in severe OSAS subjects (47.2%) was lower than those in mild and moderate OSAS subjects (54.3% and 72.4%, respectively). OA treatment is highly effective for moderate OSAS subjects. Therefore, it is important to classify the severity.
