The Sleep Research Society hosted an online focus group of more than a dozen sleep professionals, including sleep physicians and dental sleep medicine practitioners, to discuss non-CPAP treatment alternatives for obstructive sleep apnea. Moderated by Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, FAASM, the topic is particularly timely due to shortages of CPAP devices caused in part by the Philips CPAP/bilevel recall.

“This is a timely and important discussion about the true positioning of non-PAP treatment alternatives and the implementation aspects of such therapies,” says Parthasarathy, who is on the board of directors of the Sleep Research Society and president of the Sleep Research Society Foundation, in a release.

The 2-hour webinar, available on Sleep Research Society’s YouTube channel, includes conversations on topics including:

  • threshold of treatment failure and when to consider alternative therapies;
  • whether non-CPAP therapies should be offered as firstline therapies;
  • temporary oral appliances as a way to predict in responsiveness to custom oral appliances;
  • closed loop multidisciplinary referral systems to dentists for oral appliances and ENT surgeons implanting hyperglossal nerve stimulation; and
  • precision sleep medicine.

Oral appliance maker SomnoMed sponsored the webinar as part of its medical initiative.

“In light of the growing awareness of patient compliance challenges of PAP therapy for long-term OSA treatment success, SomnoMed is compelled to push the discussion of OAT’s significant potential to provide effective life-long OSA treatment for millions of OSA sufferers who would likely otherwise go untreated,” says Neil Verdal-Austin, SomnoMed’s CEO, in a release. “Our partnership with the Sleep Research Society will help bring these discussions to the forefront and treat more patients more effectively.”

Matt Conlon, EVP of SomnoMed North America, says in a release, “With OAT, a serious medical condition is being treated with a dentally fitted therapy, so it requires strong collaboration and coordination between dentists and physicians, who aren’t typical co-treatment partners. “SomnoMed’s Medical Initiative is driving these patient-centered collaborations so we can leverage the strong scientific evidence that exists today that supports greater adoption of OAT.”