Solution for CPAP Noncompliance
Treat CPAP non-compliance
4 hours per night, 21 days per month counts as “compliant,” yet rates of CPAP compliance have been estimated as low as 17%1. All of these non-compliant or intolerant CPAP users are not treating their condition, choosing instead to live with the symptoms. Most of these patients are unaware there is an alternative. That is why it’s crucial that dentists screen their patients and raise awareness of oral appliance therapy as an alternative to CPAP.
Oral Appliance Therapy (OAT) offers an effective treatment option for mild to moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and CPAP non-compliant patients. OAT keeps the airway open during sleep with a custom mandibular advancement device that is small, silent and most importantly, consistently used.
Regular use rate with OAT has been objectively measured as 83%2
While CPAP has been shown to be more effective at reducing polysomnographic variables in lab settings, due to the higher compliance rate of OAT, it has been shown to be as effective3 treating real world health outcomes like:
- Quality of life
- Cognitive performance
- High blood pressure
- Endothelial function
- Cardiovascular morbidity
Oral appliances must be fitted and titrated by a dentist. Refer your patients to a Nexus provider:
- Accepts medical insurance, often Medicare4
- Experienced with physician communication
- Dedicated to minimizing out of pocket cost
Whole Team Training
Whole Team training is the most effective way to implement new protocols for Dental Sleep Medicine. Our whole-team approach ensures that each member of your team understands how providing medical treatment benefits your patients and their personal part to play in delivering treatment. The Whole Team approach is key to ensuring consistent message delivery and comprehensive screening. That’s why we build the Nexus Comprehensive Program with full access to the online course for the Dentist and up to five team members. Additional logins are available for practices with large teams.
Contact Nexus Dental Systems to learn more:
When adherence is defined as greater than 4 hours of nightly use, 46 to 83% of patients with obstructive sleep apnea have been reported to be nonadherent to treatment. Weaver TE, Grunstein RR. Adherence to continuous positive airway pressure therapy: the challenge to effective treatment. Proc Am Thorac Soc 2008; 5:173.
The objective mean use rate was 6.4 +- 1.7 h/night at 1 year follow-up in continuing users, with a regular use rate of 83%. Dieltjens M, Braem MJ, Vroegop AVMT, Wouters K, Verbraecken JA, De Backer WA, Van de Heyning PH, Vanderveken OM. Chest. 2013 Nov;144(5):1495-1502. doi: 10.1378/chest.13-0613.
Head-to-head trials confirm CPAP is superior in reducing OSA parameters on polysomnography; however, this greater efficacy does not necessarily translate into better health outcomes in clinical practice. Comparable effectiveness of OAm and CPAP has been attributed to higher reported nightly use of OAm, . Sutherland K, Vanderveken OM, Tsuda H, Marklund M, Gagnadoux F, Kushida CA, Cistulli PA, Oral Appliance Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An Update. J Clin Sleep Med. 2014 Feb 15; 10(2): 215–227.
DreamSleep dentist providers may be Medicare participating, contact N3Sleep for details on specific providers in your area.
