“Sleep, Snoring, and Airway Issues: Why Lasers Matter” 

Webinar Description:

As dentists, we are often the first to recognize the signs of sleep disorders in our patients. While we continue to make progress in understanding the negative impact of sleep disruption and airway challenges in our society, we must continue to increase our knowledge and treatment options in order to improve the lives of our patients.

Currently, Oral Appliance Therapy shows reasonable improvement in many sleep disorder conditions. But, what about patients that don’t respond well to traditional OAT or CPAP? And, how do we address our low BMI middle aged patients with a low AHI that will not wear an oral appliance but sleep poorly?

Being able to offer the benefits of laser therapy allows us as clinicians to make an a positive impact on our patients whether in appliance therapy, or not. We are seeing tremendous improvement in AHI, quality of sleep, and improvement in mental clarity with a simple 5 minute procedure. Utilizing fractional lasers is one of the most efficient and effective lines of defense that a clinician can use to improve quality of sleep.  When treatment of snoring and airway issues is performed correctly, it can give instant relief as well as long-lasting improvement in the elasticity of collagen.  This improvement can lead to more restful sleep, improved relationships with a significant other, and more productive mental focus and overall well-being.

Learning Objectives:

•  Understand the difference between wavelengths for treating sleep disorders

•  Dispelling fallacies regarding scar tissue and charring using lasers

•  Discuss available options for monitoring treatment progress

•  Describe protocols for treating snoring and airway issues with various lasers