Take the Guesswork Out of Oral Appliance Therapy
Recognizing a patient at risk for obstructive sleep apnea is something practices should and are doing nationwide. It has become a regular part of what it means to offer the highest quality of care to patients and sets practices apart from those who are just getting by. The trainers at Ez Sleep have been teaching practices how to quickly and effectively screen patients for risks of OSA for years now. This had led to practitioners treating hundreds of patients using oral appliance therapy. Screening patients for dangerous sleep breathing disorders is the first step towards treating the various other conditions that are associated with obstructive sleep apnea.
FIT-IT is the easy-to-remember way to quickly get your patient the care the patient needs. Once the patient has been screened by you and tested at home with an Ez Sleep At-Home sleep test that renders a diagnosis it is time to pull out the FIT-IT Quick Start Guide and get him into a trial appliance TONIGHT. No waiting for impressions and lab fabrications only to find out that the patient isn’t a responder to the therapy. Your patient can take this FDA approved trial appliance home the very same night the test results are known. Ez Sleep can test your patient with the appliance as soon as possible, showing response and improvement that drives home the point and need for your patient to undergo custom oral appliance therapy successfully.
“F” is for FIND. Finding the patient’s Apnea Guard® tray size is a matter of a quick look in the patient’s mouth to establish tongue size. Then in Finding the patient’s neutral bite position. The neutral bite is important when deciding how enough protrusion is available to open the airway. The great news is the Apnea Guard® instructions make this very clear and very precise. There are simple rules, leaving no confusion on how to go about finding this very important measurement.
“I” for IMPRESSIONS comes next. Upper and lower impressions are taken using the specialized putty developed for use with the Apnea Guard® trays. Again, using the FIT-IT process and Ez Sleep’s instructions, the Apnea Guard® trays are available in three distinct sizes, each accounting for vertical space. Women typically are fitted using a low sized tray while men will use a medium. A step up in tray size is added for a large or scalloped tongue.
“T” is for TITRATE. The newly impressed Apnea Guard® trial appliance is ready for immediate use to take the guesswork out of oral appliance therapy. Ez Sleep + Apnea Guard® makes titration as effortless as it could possibly be. A patient will advance his or her own jaw, giving the practitioner feedback to determine the position that opens the airway as much as possible. Not the most advanced jaw, but the one that will best treat the patient without causing any needless advancement.
“I” for IDENTIFY is intended to identify the patient’s 70% protrusive measurement. Here we see how FIT-IT with Ez Sleep + Apnea Guard® has taken the guesswork out of oral appliance therapy. What is 70% of your patient’s maximum protrusive? Apnea Guard® was developed with a sure fire algorithm to make finding this number easy too. Using the chart provided all the practitioner need do is identify the measurements to achieve the correct fit.
“T” represents TRIAL and TEST, the final steps of Apnea Guard® FIT-IT program. This means immediate treatment that your patients used to have to wait weeks or months to begin. But Ez Sleep’s FIT-IT with Apnea Guard®, your patient will begin actual therapy tonight, the very same night the patient hears of their diagnosis.
Unfortunately, the CPAP has long been the only means of treating diagnosed patients. The guesswork involved in treating patients with an oral appliance has been a hurdle many doctors are not prepared to overcome. It makes sense too. How does one know if a patient will respond to oral appliance therapy? Isn’t there a risk of him not being able to wear an oral appliance? How about making any specific adjustments to the appliance once the patient is given instructions on wearing it?
For far too long patients have undergone an at-home sleep test only to find that oral appliance therapy is still weeks away. Time goes by and they nervously sit down for a consultation to discuss the findings and diagnosis by a board certified sleep physician only to be told that there will be no treatment given for this newly discovered life threatening condition tonight. This can be very disconcerting for the patient. Can you imagine finding out you have a sleep breathing condition and then having to wait weeks before you can expect to be treated? To add insult to injury the therapy is rarely efficacy-tested to prove the benefit or results of the oral appliance. Ez Sleep’s at-home efficacy studies are the quick and easy answer to this dilemma. Efficacy studies show how well the treatment works under the best possible conditions. It also proves benefits to the practitioner and the patient resulting in higher compliance due to the fact that the patient can now see the results of the efficacy study.
Finally, there is a smooth, step-by-step process available to ensure patients will receive the care they expect and the care you are determined to provide. And just like Ez Sleep, it’s so simple.
With FIT-IT and Ez Sleep + Apnea Guard®, you and your patients will achieve the highest level of care and treatment available. With FIT-IT, Ez Sleep + Apnea Guard®, and the process of immediate trial appliance therapy, your patients will know that you put their health and care as your utmost priority. Is Ez Sleep’s FIT-IT process and Apnea Guard® in your practice’s future?
More training on how you can use Ez Sleep’s screening methods, their easy and convenient in-home testing and the Apnea Guard® immediate trial appliance are available with purchase of the Starter Kit. For more information contact ApneaGuard@ezsleeptest.com or by calling Ez Sleep’s National Sales Manager Ryan Javanbakht at (949) 467-4510.