“Where, oh where, did my oral appliance go……”
A patient called our office today with some interesting/unfortunate comments about his oral appliance that we made for him several months ago. He had previously had a sleep study with a diagnosis of “borderline” obstructive sleep apnea. This is the kind of diagnosis that will cause most sleep physicians to not recommend treatment due to a lack of severity. However, based on his symptoms of waking up not feeling refreshed and his loud snoring, we fabricated an oral appliance for him to wear at night.
He called today to tell us how wonderful the oral appliance was and how much better it had made him feel—until he lost the part that fit his upper teeth! After looking everywhere with no luck, he concluded that it must have ended up in the wastebasket by his bed and was thrown away unintentionally. Now, without the appliance, he is, in his own words, “miserable without it”.
