Effects and adverse events of a dental appliance for treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea

In a prospective study, 95 patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) were randomised to receive either surgical treatment, uvulopa lathopharyngoplasty, (4-6 patients) or treatment with a nocturnal dental ap pliance for mandibular advancement (49 patients). Of the 49 dental applianc e patients, 37 completed the 12-month follow-up. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects and adverse events of dental appliance treatment fr om a one-year perspective. Somnography was employed to measure treatment effects before and 12 months post-treatment. At the 12-month control, somnography was performed twice: t he first time with the dental appliance and the second time without it. Adv erse events were recorded 2 weeks and 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment w as initiated. The patients used the dental appliance on average 6 nights/week. After 12 m onths of treatment, the apnoea-, apneoa/hypopnoea-, oxygen desaturation-, a nd snoring indices decreased significantly. Ninety-five per cent of the pat ients reduced their apnoeaindex by greater than or equal to 50% and 78% of the patients were normalised following treatment. At the somnographic regis tration without the dental appliance, the values were found comparable to w hat they were before treatment. Mandibular mobility and occlusion were constant throughout the study. The a dverse events resulting from using the dental appliance were relatively min or and infrequent, and no serious complications were observed except for tw o patients who reported pain from the temporomandibular joint. In conclusion, the dental appliance has been shown to be a valuable treatme nt method for mild to moderate OSA with few adverse events in the stomatogn athic system or other complications.