Prosthodontic Implications of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Sleep is an imperative biologic process which is responsible for maintenance and restoration of health. Sleep medicine is known to be the youngest medical specialty recognised by the American Board of Medical Specialties that primarily focusses on human aspect of sleep, integrating various specialties that are involved in sleep medicine, including dentistry. Dental profession in general and Prosthodontists in particular, continue to play pivotal role in terms of diagnosing the undetected sleep apneic patients at a very early stage as they are at a position to identify the factors that can be detrimental to one¿s health, such as edentulism, either partial or complete, in relation to OSA. By restoring the vertical dimension of an edentulous patient, they can diagnose and limit the symptoms in undetected sleep apneic patients at a very primitive stage. This book is an attempt to discuss the prosthodontic perspectives in the field of sleep medicine, particularly on OSA at length.