Autonomic Nervous System Trial: Control and Resolve for Sleep-Breathing Disorders

Conventional approaches to sleep dentistry concentrate on apneas/ hypopneas that cause periodic desaturations and fragmentations, a strategy that may be leading healthcare professionals to overlook many patients in dental practices with breathing-disturbed sleep. Recent studies have explored a new chronic "stress" paradigm rather than the apnea/hypopnea model to explain damage from sleep-breathing disorders and the progressive nature of this problem. This article will discuss the shortcomings of traditional approaches for dealing with obstructive sleep apnea and other sleep-breathing conditions and provide a protocol, which involved the autonomic nervous system trial, for improving control and management with mandibular advancement appliances. Most importantly, an algorithm for interdisciplinary resolution strategies is presented.