Can I Get a Sleep Appliance if I Have Dentures?

is a condition where a person experiences brief lapses in breathing while they are asleep, and it tends to occur more often in older adults. This is especially true for those who wear dentures, as a lack of teeth can cause the muscles in the mouth and throat to decrease in size, making it much easier for the airway to become blocked during the night. For patients who need treatment for their sleep apnea or are looking for a CPAP alternative in Vero Beach, oral appliance therapy offers a simple and effective solution, but can it help a patient with dentures? We shed light on this subject today.

Sleep Apnea Treatment with Dentures

Currently, the most often prescribed treatment for sleep apnea is CPAP therapy, in which a patient wears a facemask connected to an air pump that continually forces oxygen down the throat to keep it open. However, many patients find this extremely uncomfortable, or the CPAP isn’t actually able to relieve their symptoms, so they look to oral appliance therapy.

With oral appliance therapy, a patient wears a custom-made mouthguard to bed each night that gently shifts the jaw forward and keeps the tongue in place in order to leave the airway unobstructed. These appliances are supplied by certified sleep dentists because they need to seamlessly fit in the mouth and over the teeth.

The issue for patients with dentures is that oral appliances need the teeth in order to stay in place, specifically on the lower jaw. If a patient still has a few teeth on their lower arch, then an oral appliance can be made to fit over them with no issue. For someone who is missing all of their teeth on the bottom, however, this presents a problem, as there is nothing for the oral appliance to “anchor” to.

Simply fitting the oral appliance over a denture doesn’t provide the kind of hold patients need, and it can’t be trusted to sit on the gums alone. However, with dental implants, a patient can gain the internal support needed to use an oral appliance.

A dental implant is a small titanium post that is use to mimic the root structure of a lost tooth, and using just two placed in the lower jaw, a patient will be able to safely wear a sleep appliance.

How to Get Dental Implants for a Sleep Appliance

Once a sleep apnea patient and their doctor have determined that oral appliance therapy is the appropriate treatment, the next step is to have the dental implants placed. A patient’s sleep doctor or a sleep dentist can refer them to a dentist who can perform the implant procedure.

Once a patient has healed from this (which can take a few months), a sleep dentist can then make an oral appliance that will fit over the implants, enabling a patient to breathe comfortably while they sleep.

While getting treatment for sleep apnea with dentures may be a multi-step process, it is definitely an essential one. Sleep apnea is especially harmful to older adults and can severely affect their quality of life. With the guidance of a sleep doctor, sleep dentist, and an implant dentist, a patient will be able to get the rest they need so they can live their life to the fullest.

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Mogell is a board-certified sleep dentist based in Vero Beach, FL. He has over 30 years of experience successfully treating sleep apnea with custom-made oral appliances and is fully capable of helping those with dentures. If you need treatment for your sleep apnea or are interested in getting sleep testing in Vero Beach, he’s the man to see. To contact him, click here.