Open Letter to Prospective Patients
from Dr. Denbar

I am writing this letter to prospective patients and individuals who are investigating oral appliances for themselves or a loved one. My objective is to inform you about important considerations when choosing an experienced dentist as your medical provider for this medical condition.

In 1995, I introduced Oral Appliance Therapy to our Central Texas physicians. I have been on the consulting staff of the Seton Hospital System for Oral Appliance Therapy for years. Knowing that this therapy could offer patients more treatment choices, I decided to stay on the cutting edge of this therapy. I have given table clinics to other doctors, published and presented case presentations on a local, state, and national level and developed a positional sleep device to train people to sleep on their side. My sleep device was studied at Walter Reed Hospital and the results were published in a prestigious national medical journal.

With 15 years of clinical experience and having treated over 1000 patients ranging from the simplest to the most difficult of cases, my office is in the top tier of qualified and experienced providers for Oral Appliance Therapy on a national basis.

I know that at times this therapy can appear quite easy. Many dentists have taken one or two courses and made a few appliances. Please understand that there is a long learning curve with this therapy. Since there is no cure for apnea and every patient is unique with unique medical conditions, your treatment will need to be monitored and possibly fine-tuned on a continual basis. As a part of your treatment, our office allows you to use our wrist oximetry, Level 3 monitoring capability and CPAP machines for your comfort and convenience to monitor your medical condition. Complications can arise and my years of experience allow my office to quickly treat your problem. The last situation you want to place yourself in is your doctor's learning curve. Our office has those years of experience to avoid the problems first of all, and if any problems do develop we have multiple ways to treat them. Not all dentists get the same results with Oral Appliance Therapy. Yes, we all need to start somewhere at sometime, but few of us want to be with an inexperienced clinician. When you do see a dentist for this therapy you might want to inquire into his or her experience. Here are a few questions you could ask.

1. How long and how many patients have you treated with oral appliances?
2. Have you used oral appliances with patients that have other complications?
3. What type of complications have you treated?
4. Do you have monitoring equipment in your office?
5. Are you able to repair appliances?
6. Are you familiar with combination treatment? Have you ever used it?
7. How do you treat muscle or TMJ complications?

Yes, my office can answer each of the above questions with solid experience behind each answer. For example, it is possible to strain a muscle or the TMJ with an oral appliance. This usually happens if a patient gets too aggressive with their therapy and brings their jaw out too fast. We use and have years of experience with tissue ionophoresis and microelectrical therapy to get the patient healed as quickly as possible.

There are numerous variables that will impact your treatment result. Every person, along with their medical history, is a unique entity. I wish every case was simple with a predictably excellent result. After fifteen years of treating patients with oral appliances, myself included, that is not reality. Only experience can provide you with a more predictable and positive treatment outcome.

Martin Denbar, D.D.S.
Fellow, American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine

Austin Apnea & Snoring Therapy uses FDA registered dental oral appliances to treat mild and moderate sleep apnea and to provide a more comfortable alternative to CPAP. Our office is an in-network provider for most major medical insurance companies.