dental sleep medicine

[CaliDDS1986]

as a new dentist I was wanted to pose this question to the practicing physicians here- what do you believe the future of the role of the dentist plays in sleep medicine? I know few studies have been done on oral appliance effectiveness for apnea, but what do all of you feel? how would I establish a referral system with a sleep physician?

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[michaelrack]

as a new dentist I was wanted to pose this question to the practicing physicians here- what do you believe the future of the role of the dentist plays in sleep medicine? I know few studies have been done on oral appliance effectiveness for apnea, but what do all of you feel? how would I establish a referral system with a sleep physician?

As a sleep doc, I would want the dentist to be a member of/certified by the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine:
http://www.aadsm.org/

As far as referrals, as a doc the key question I would have for a qualified sleep dentist is what insurance they accept, and what the out of pocket would be for an oral appliance for each of the major insurance companies in an area.

 

[neurologist]

as a new dentist I was wanted to pose this question to the practicing physicians here- what do you believe the future of the role of the dentist plays in sleep medicine? I know few studies have been done on oral appliance effectiveness for apnea, but what do all of you feel? how would I establish a referral system with a sleep physician?

Actually, evidence for using them for mild to moderate OSA is reasonably good. My personal "feeling" is that they are underused for these patients.

Agree with Rack that dentist should be AADSM certified and that the insurance issues are important - more insurances are covering them now but need to know what your particular market is like, and what any out of pocket expenses for patient would be.

Around here, medical insurance will usually cover cost of the device itself, but not the actual dentist visit, which has to be covered by dental plan or self pay.

 

[Faebinder]

Same here:

1) Must be AASM eligible or certified.

2) It would be nice to know what insurance he/she takes.

3) Pictures of the devices he/she use most commonly (that way we can show the patients) and maybe even some stats about their success rates in resolving apneas.