The American Dental Association recently came out with a Statement on Breathing Related Sleep Disorders (BRSD) recommending that dentists monitor the effectiveness of oral appliance therapy (OAT) with home sleep testing.
Clenching or bruxism have recently been linked to sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. Because of these new findings, The American College of Prosthodontics recommends that dentists screen for Sleep Related Breathing Disorder (SRBD) in all patients who clench or will undergo restorative dentistry.
As a result of the retracted narrow face of the human today, over 50% of the population has airway pathology.
Impacting between 50 to 70 million Americans, sleep-disordered breathing is proving to be a silent health crisis. Dentists are a patient’s best hope for catching sleep-disordered breathing early and preventing chronic illnesses later in life.
Sleep texting fragments sleep and may point to additional sleep disorders. Sleep disorders are especially a concern in teens and young adults because their developing brains lack restful NREM or memory enhancing REM sleep.