Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Oral Appliances

Abstract

Central sleep apnea is a sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by repetitive
cessation or decrease of both airflow and respiratory effort during sleep.1 Conversely, in
obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) there is a respiratory effort against a closed upper airway
evidencing that patients who suffer from OSA have anatomic/functional deficits in the upper
airways.2 When associated with clinical signs and symptoms such as excessive daytime
sleepiness, cognitive deficit, decreased quality of life (QoL) and increased cardiovascular
morbidity it is called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).3-5
In clinical practice it is noticeable that rarely do patients suffer from pure OSAS, the
majority of them exhibits some proportion of central and/or mixed events. The coexistence of
two types of apnea indicates more complex underlying disorders than just increased resistance
in the upper airway. In fact, unstable respiratory