ABSTRACT
Dental devices represent a common alternative for patients with sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD), who are unsuitable candidates for treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) (1). These intraoral devices, commonly known as oral appliances, aim at relieving upper airway obstruction and snoring by modifying the position of the mandible, tongue, and other oropharyngeal structures. Oral appliance treatment of SRBD has gained considerable popularity because of its simplicity and supposed reversibility. In 1902, the French physician Pierre Robin laid the foundation for oral appliance therapy. With a “monobloc” appliance, Robin treated children who suffered from breathing difficulties and glossoptosis due to hypoplasia of the mandible (2). The first case of an oral appliance that repositioned the mandible in an adult patient with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was not reported until 1980 (3). The first patient series of oral appliance therapy for OSA was reported in 1982 and described the effects of an appliance that repositioned the tongue (4). Currently, well over 60 different oral appliances are marketed for the treatment of snoring and OSA (5).
