Risk factors for the efficacy of oral appliance for treating obstructive sleep apnea: A preliminary study

Objective: To identify potential risk factors of response to oral appliance in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Methods: Fifteen OSA patients were enrolled. Clinical characteristics, cephalometric measurements, and the results of home sleep testing were retrospectively obtained at baseline, and a sleep test was done again at the end of treatment.

Results: Twelve subjects were responders and three were non-responders. The diastolic blood pressure, minimum pulse rate, SNA (Angle between sella-nasion and nasion-A point), ANB (Anteroposterior maxilla/mandible discrepancy), and facial convexity of non-responders was higher than those of responders. Unlike AHI, non-responders showed a lower lowest oxygen saturation (%) than responders.

Discussion: Elevated diastolic pressure and minimal pulse rate, higher skeletal convexity and lowered lowest oxygen saturation might be risk factors to oral appliance efficacy in the OSA patients. More research in a large sample is needed to verify the results of the current study.