Not likely, because it’s completely dependent on the management. Its easy to make a piece of plastic and shove it in someone’s face because any dentist can do that it’s basic dentistry 101. The question is, how do you manipulate it to make it work and how do you monitor the patient and what are the outcomes you’re looking for to achieve to get optimal care? You need a dental specialist and you need medical specialists. So it’s really quite simple, really. And, you know, that gets us on to should you treat a patient without sleep study.
And the answer is no. Even the sleep specialists who are consultant sleep specialists who have generally have a respiratory specialty can’t predict who’s got obstructive sleep apnea so if a snorer walks in you cannot assume that they don’t have sleep apnea because a lot of them come in with significant obstructive sleep apnea with very minimal symptoms. And a symptom is typically excessive daytime sleepiness, falling asleep, driving, not concentrating in meetings and things like that. So that’s not always a good subjective way to work it out either.
So really, you do need a sleep study?
