Nothing can ruin your day like a bad night’s sleep. That’s what led Dentistry With TLC owner Dr. Anna Smith to search for a solution to her husband’s sleeplessness. Diagnosed with sleep apnea and unable to adjust to using the bulky CPAP mask, Travis Smith was not only habitually exhausted, but he also ceased breathing up to 72 times an hour at night. “He was a 40-year-old healthy guy who just couldn’t sleep through the night and would be gasping,” Smith says. “He tried the CPAP and couldn’t use it—it made him feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable.”
But the sleep-deprived now have another option. Dentistry With TLC, based just north of St. Louis in Godfrey, Illinois, offers the SomnoMed Sleep Appliance, a custom-made oral device that fits like a retainer. “It goes over your teeth, so there’s nothing on your face,” Smith says. “It keeps your jaw and tongue naturally forward so you can breathe on your own. And unlike with the CPAP, you can sleep on your side, on your back, however you want.”
Travis is far from an atypical sleep apnea patient in his dislike of the CPAP mask— as many as half of those who try it give up within a week, Smith says. “You have to strap it to your face and sleep on your back, and it forces air down your nose,” she says. But going without treatment altogether is far from ideal. Sleep apnea, a condition where the throat and tongue block the airways during sleep, causes periods of suffocation and can reduce the body’s oxygen to dangerous levels.
The simple, user-friendly SomnoMed device has been a game-changer for many of Smith’s patients, she notes. Travis, her first sleep apnea patient, loved the appliance within a few days of using it. “He was getting a good night’s sleep and felt alive again,” she says. “That’s when he realized how much his bad sleep was affecting him during the day: He was exhausted, had high blood pressure in the morning, and was just miserable.”
To be able to offer the device, Smith traveled around the country to complete rigorous training. Only dentists can be certified to make it, and Smith says she provides more SomnoMed Sleep Appliances than any other dentist in the U.S. She also is one of only four dentists in the world to achieve ‘Sapphire Partner’ status. “I’ve made about 1,000 of them,” she says. “The oral device is about 90 percent successful in the U.S. and 95 percent successful in our office.”
Regularly getting quality sleep means a lot to Travis, who calls his SomnoMed Sleep Appliance his ‘most prized possession.’ “I can’t imagine living without it,” he says. “It’s been life changing.”
[Dentistry With TLC, which provides the SomnoMed Sleep Appliance to patients with sleep apnea, is a one-stop shop for your dental needs. For more information, call 618.466.9093 or visit dentistrywithtlc.com or cpapsucks.com.]
Pictured: Dr. Anna Smith of Dentistry with TLC
Photo: Tim Parker Photography