Dental Sleep Medicine Insider December 2015 | Page 25

AHI IS NOT THE SOLE CRITICAL DETERMINING
FACTOR THAT SHOULD GUIDE TREATMENT
DECISION MAKING.

that even patients with severe
sleep apnea actually responded
equally well to oral appliance
therapy, even though their AHI
was reduced with less efficacy
with oral appliances. They
theorized that the reason for
this was the result of more hours
with pharyngeal support with
the oral appliance. Anandam
then duplicated this study. The
Anandam study demonstrated
again equal prevention of
fatal events in patients with
severe OSA with oral appliance
therapy compared to CPAP.
This was a well designed study
which extended over an 88
month period and included
over 200 patients. Anandam
makes the point that an AHI
can be reduced to 15 and get
the reduction in cardiovascular
death. He confirmed what
Marin 2005, and others found.
If you reduce AHI below severe,
it is enough to reduce cardiac
deaths.
“IF S