KIEN NGUYEN
Q:
What are you seeing from your dental sleep customers
who advertise their practices directly to patients?
A:
Kien Nguyen
President of Somnomed
North America
Q:
A:
We have dental customers throughout the country, as
well as here in North Texas, who actively promote their
sleep practice to patients. The most common DTC ad-
vertisement is print ads in local newspapers and magazines. I
have seen several of these ads in my travels. Others have tried
billboard advertising and some have even used radio advertis-
ing. Radio is more expensive and requires a good understand-
ing of the listening audience, but can be very effective to reach
a broader group of patients.
Do you believe the growth across these customers can be attributed to DTC advertising?
The growth experienced by customers who regularly conduct DTC advertising is directly
linked to driving greater patient awareness of their practice and services. However, the ben-
efit of DTC advertising can also expand to other dental practices doing sleep, who do not
advertise to patients. For example, there are anecdotal cases where some customers have gained
new patients who were exposed to the DTC advertising and learned about oral devices, as a result.
Greater awareness of the treatment will lead these patients conducting their own internet search
for local dental sleep providers. I also believe that when CPAP-non-adherent patients are aware of
an alternative to CPAP, they also contact their sleep physicians and seek a prescription for an oral
device. The latest AASM/AADSM guideline on oral device states the following, “We recommend that
sleep physicians consider prescription of oral appliances, rather than no treatment, for adult pa-
tients with obstructive sleep apnea who are intolerant of CPAP therapy or prefer alternate therapy.”
Q:
A:
What do you think the long-term impact of more dental sleep practices advertising directly
to the patient will be?
Longer term, greater DTC advertising will lead to more and more patients becoming aware of
different treatment options, including oral devices, for their OSA condition. I believe this will
lead to more patients seeking a clinical diagnosis and eventually treatment. At the same time,
greater awareness of oral devices could also lead to less leakage of patients who have received a re-
ferral for an oral device and not proceed forward with treatment. We see leakage rates of greater
than 50%, due to patients not fully understanding the treatment and not wanting to move forward
with seeing a sleep dentists. Overall, I feel that many more patients will benefit from the knowledge
and eventually treatment of their OSA condition.