A Case Report Using Oral Appliance Therapy Plus Oropharyngeal Exercise
Snoring
and obstructive sleep apneas are common disorders that affect at least 40
million Americans over 40 years of age. It is becoming more common in recent
years for dentists to learn to fabricate and treat patients who have
Obstructive Sleep Apnea with oral appliances. However, Oral Appliance Therapy
often yields incomplete outcomes. Adjunctive therapeutic modalities may then be
deployed in order to improve the overall effectiveness of therapy.The cause of
sleep disordered breathing is a collapse of the pharynx that occurs with the
onset of sleep and loss of muscle tonus in the upper airway.
It has been shown
that pharyngeal musculature and function is altered in patients with OSA and
that one of the contributing factors in the progression of OSA is thought to be
progressive muscle weakness with age. Oropharyngeal exercise (OP) has been
shown to improve moderate OSA in a group of Brazilian men using a complex set
of exercises based on speech therapy practices. In this clinical case
oropharyngeal exercise was deployed to further improve outcome with MRD. Read more.................
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