Michael Messing, DDS, MPH | 7 Short Hills Avenue | Short Hills, NJ 07078 | (973) 921-0771

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Stop Snoring, Get Relief from Sleep Apnea

While snoring can be harmless, it can also be the sign of a serious health problem: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA occurs when the airway becomes blocked and breathing stops for short periods of time. It greatly increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

With OSA you may experience:

• Snoring
• Gasping after breathing stops
• Waking up tired
• Waking with a headache
• Excessive daytime sleepiness

How Can OSA be treated?

Once you have been correctly diagnosed, snoring and obstructive sleep apnea can be treated with oral appliance therapy, cpap (continuous positive airway pressure), or in some cases surgery.

What is Oral Appliance Therapy?

Oral appliances that treat snoring and OSA are similar to orthodontic retainers or sports mouth-guards.

Oral appliances work by:

• Repositioning the lower jaw, tongue, soft palate and uvula
• Stabilizing the lower jaw and tongue
• Increasing the muscle tone of the tongue

How will I know if Oral Appliance Therapy is right for me?

Dr. Messing uses the latest technology of Acoustic Imaging Reflectometry (AIR) in order to predict the likelihood of success with oral appliance therapy. After breathing into a sensor, a computer analyzes the airway opening. By analyzing different jaw positions, the computer can help predict if an oral appliance will work, and which jaw position is best. While not a guarantee of success, it greatly increases the success rate of oral appliance therapy.

In addition to predicting success of oral appliance therapy, AIR can help prevent surgery failure in treating OSA. If the computer analysis shows constriction of the airway in a site beyond the proposed surgical site, then surgery is less likely to succeed.