Edward T. Sall, MD, DDS, MBA

Tell us about yourself.

I am a licensed dentist and physician. I am board-certified in both Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery, and Sleep Medicine. Currently, I am in full-time private practice in Syracuse, New York as an Otolaryngologist and Sleep Physician. My practice includes the medical and surgical management of sleep disorders, the treatment of Temporomandibular Joint and Orofacial Pain as well as the full spectrum of Otolaryngology with an emphasis on Sino-nasal Disorders. In 2019, I accepted the position as medical director of ProSomnus Sleep Technologies with the role of increasing physician acceptance of OAT in the treatment of OSA. In 2020, I became the President and CEO of BetterNight Medical group as well as SD Diagnostics, Inc, a home sleep testing company. Currently, I have medical licenses in 40 states which allows me to do telemedicine consultations in sleep medicine for BetterNight. These services allow the referring dentist to treat the majority of their patients following a best-practices protocol for the total continuum of care. In 2021, I accepted a position as a consultant to Aerin Medical. My role at Aerin Medical is to increase collaboration between sleep dentists and otolaryngologists in order to improve outcomes in patients with OSA treated with both OAT and CPAP.

How did you learn so much about how dentists work in their clinic?

As both an Otolaryngologist and dentist, I became acutely aware of the fact that dentists play an integral role in the management and treatment of patients with OSA. While surgical procedures have their place in the treatment of OSA, many patients want a nonsurgical option besides CPAP. There are approximately 300 Otolaryngologists who are now board certified in sleep medicine and have made sleep medicine a significant portion of their practice. Certainly, pursuing this sub-specialty, these Otolaryngologists understand the importance of Oral Appliance Therapy and welcome the assistance from their dental colleagues.

How do you see the future of dentist-physician collaboration going as communications improve?

The difficulty in treating patients with OSA is that they often require the services of multiple practitioners across many specialties. The current system is cumbersome, inefficient, and wastes precious medical resources. With the advent of Home Sleep Apnea Testing (HSAT), dentists may collaborate with sleep physicians in order to confirm the diagnosis of OSA. Many Otolaryngologists and Dentists now make HSAT an integral part of their practice. Nasal Airway Obstruction is one of the most common reasons for which patients consult Otolaryngologists and clearly sleep dentists may screen patients for this problem and refer them to their ENT colleagues. Going forward, patients will benefit from collaboration between sleep dentists and ENT physicians. This increased awareness of this relationship will drive this collaboration. It has been well established that nasal obstruction will compromise the efficacy of OAT, so it is in the best interests of the sleep dentists to engage their ENT physicians and refer them appropriately. The future will embrace this bidirectional referral process as we all strive to deliver precision medicine and dentistry optimizing the patient experience.