Brandie: How does this lack
of awareness manifest itself
with your patients and what
do you do to increase their
awareness?
Lack of awareness among
the medical community
and the public is the biggest hurdle we face...
Dr. Harris: Lack of awareness
among the medical community and the public is the biggest
hurdle we face as dentists. A
person with a sleep apnea is
own research. Now they are
asking us questions about apnea for them and their family
members.
INTERVIEWED BY
Brandie Havell
Senior Account Manager
[email protected]
877.95.SNORE
4x more likely to have a stroke
and 3x more likely to have
heart disease. In the medical field, many of the PCP’s
just don’t deal with sleep and
want to refer it up the chain.
Once they do make it up the
chain they want the patient to
use CPAP. Then, a person who
comes in to have their teeth
cleaned is not ready to hear
they may have sleep apnea.
We use the DS3 Screener and
many times the subsequent
conversation is the first time
anyone has discussed sleep
with them. We then explain
the only way to know is to test
for it. I even had one man who
said “I don’t have apnea. My
son does but that’s cause he’s
too fat.” We’re starting to see
patients that we screened
six months ago are now open
to the sleep discussion because their last appointment
showed them to be at risk and
then they did some of their
Brandie: How do you see this
lack of awareness manifesting
itself among your dental colleagues and what do/can you
do to address it?
We’re starting to see patients that we screened
six months ago are now
open to the sleep discussion because their last
appointment
showed
them to be at risk and
then they did some of
their own research.
Dr. Harris: I see the awareness growing rapidly. Treating
a medical condition is far different than typical dentistry.
Someone breaks a tooth and
you place a crown. Fixed. A
medical condition like OSA is
far different in how we manage the condition. There is
no permanent fix. The charting & billing required for OSA
is far more complicated than
dental and is a bottleneck for
most offices. Fortunately, DS3
solves that problem.
Brandie: Despite the hurdles
inherent to DSM, you continue
to provide the service. Why?
Dr. Harris: Awareness is key. If
somebody has been told they
may have a dangerous condition and they refuse that falls
on them. Yet, as a healthcare
provider if we fail to screen
for this dangerous condition,
we need to take the blame. I
believe treating sleep disor-
dered breathing and increasing awareness can have a significant impact on the health
of the community I serve.
No crown or filling has ever
changed a life. Keeping an airway open at night is life changing. Even eliminating snoring
and bringing a husband and
wife back in the same bedroom is a really big deal. Educating the medical community
and patients about the benefits of dental devices is an important part of the equation.
I see dental devices as a potentially life-saving alternative
to CPAP. There are many who
use CPAP but refuse to travel
with it or simply can’t tolerate
it. Oral appliance therapy has
a higher efficacy for mild and
moderate patients mostly
due to the compliance rate of
77% which far exceeds CPAP
compliance.
[email protected]
www.markharrisdds.com