5 Reasons to Incorporate Sleep Dentistry into Your Practice

One of the big questions on many clinician’s minds lately is whether or not to incorporate sleep dentistry into their treatment modalities. It can be challenging to decide what new ideas or techniques will be most beneficial from a personal and financial perspective.

At CMS, we recently added a Sleep Dentistry: Complete Implementation with Dr. Mona Patel.  Much of what Dr. Patel teaches regards the transformational power of screening for and treating airway disorders, including sleep apnea. It opens up a whole world of possibilities you may never have considered before.

Of course, the number one reason to take on this new realm of dental care is the benefits to patients. Some estimates claim that 1 in 15 Americans suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA can cause long-term issues like persistent exhaustion and changes to behavior or cognition.

Here’s our take on why you should incorporate sleep dentistry into your practice:

1. Reinvigorate Your Passion

Let’s be honest, any career can become less exciting over time. With dentistry, it’s easy to get comfortable in a particular way of practicing and realize you’ve lost your passion for the work.

2. Alleviate OSA Symptoms

OSA goes unnoticed by many medical professionals because the symptoms can be attributed to other concerns. Essentially, what happens is that during sleep the airway closes to an extent that triggers the brain to wakefulness.

This persistent interruption of sleep can lead to many unfortunate health effects, such as an increase in the likelihood of suffering from heart disease or a stroke. Good sleep is so critical to a variety of physical processes. Plus, it simply reduces quality of life to feel drained much of the time.

3. Collaborate More Broadly

A really fun and rewarding aspect of screening patients for sleep disorders is being able to collaborate with MDs on treatment plans. Sleep dentistry is one of the key areas where medicine and dentistry collide.

4. Change Patient Lives

Changing lives is inevitable with sleep dentistry. Therapies you enact will give you the ability to drastically improve the way many of your patients feel daily. They may seem hesitant at first, but they will also likely be very interested in interventions that can impact the way they sleep.

5. Boost Practice Productivity

Finally, you will certainly see a boost to your bottom line with sleep dentistry services. You can use it to market your practice more broadly and also promote specific treatments or devices.

When you love what you do, the work and living are easy. We encourage you to start learning about what it takes to incorporate sleep dentistry into your practice.