Do you wake up feeling exhausted, or does your partner complain about your loud snoring? You might be dealing with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common condition that repeatedly stops and starts your breathing while you sleep.
At Payson Dental and Orthodontics, Brian L. Kraft, DDS, helps patients achieve quieter, healthier nights. From our office in Payson, Utah, we proudly serve families throughout Payson, Santaquin, Genola, Mona, Salem, Nephi, Spanish Fork, and Mapleton.
Snoring and daytime fatigue can signal obstructive sleep apnea, but they aren’t enough to diagnose it. A sleep evaluation and appropriate testing can determine whether OSA is present and guide treatment.
Oral appliance therapy uses a custom-fitted, comfortable mouthguard-like device worn only during sleep to keep your airway open. Most oral appliances work by gently advancing your lower jaw forward, which naturally tightens the soft tissues in the back of your throat and keeps your tongue from collapsing backward.
Joint guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine recommends custom, titratable oral appliances for adults with OSA who can’t tolerate CPAP or prefer an alternative treatment.
Professional guidelines favor custom, titratable appliances over noncustom devices, such as over-the-counter "boil-and-bite" guards, because they can be individually fitted and adjusted, with dental follow-up to monitor for side effects or bite changes.
Many patients prefer oral appliances because they are quiet, comfortable, easy to travel with, and do not require masks, hoses, or electricity. Because they are so much easier to wear, patients are far more likely to use them consistently throughout the entire night.
Researchers are also studying how oral appliance therapy may affect cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure.
A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis found that mandibular advancement devices were used an average of 0.71 hours longer per night than CPAP in the studies with objective adherence data. The analysis also found a modestly greater reduction in daytime systolic blood pressure with mandibular advancement devices compared with CPAP.
The authors noted that better adherence may partly explain this finding, but adherence data were available from only three trials, and overall blood pressure reductions were modest and varied among participants.
Additionally, a 2025 observational study of 152 people with OSA found that 95% met the researchers’ treatment-response threshold for sleep apnea-specific hypoxic burden after oral appliance therapy. Hypoxic burden measures the depth and duration of oxygen drops associated with breathing interruptions during sleep.
The researchers noted that hypoxic burden may eventually help clinicians evaluate treatment response, although additional research is needed to determine how well it predicts long-term outcomes during oral appliance therapy.
If you suffer from loud snoring, mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea, or can't use a CPAP machine, a custom oral appliance may be a treatment option to discuss with your sleep and dental providers.
Under Dr. Kraft's guidance, we use advanced technology like 3D cone beam imaging and digital impressions to design a device tailored to your unique anatomy. This ensures a comfortable fit that protects your teeth and jaw joint while you sleep.
You do not have to live with chronic fatigue or disruptive snoring. Our team is here to help you reclaim your energy and protect your long-term health. To find out if oral appliance therapy is right for you, schedule a consultation with Dr. Kraft at Payson Dental and Orthodontics today.
