Mandibular movement monitoring may help improve oral sleep apnea devices

While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) continues to be the gold standard for treatment of sleep apnea, the cumbersome machines are often not well tolerated by patients. Because of this, less obtrusive oral appliances that thrust the jaw forward during sleep are becoming more popular. Mandibular protrusion enlarges the pharynx and stabilizes the upper airway. A new study demonstrates that mandibular movements (MM) monitoring can be used to assess the efficacy of these oral appliances.