The Protocol
1. Referral
Submit your patient referral online.
2. Diagnostics
A diagnostic unit will be sent to your patient’s home within two business days of the referral being submitted.
3. Report
The referring dentist will receive a report with the diagnostic results and treatment recommendations.
4. Telehealth*
A Telehealth consultation with a sleep physician may be required if indicated in the report and treatment recommendations.
Based on the recommendations from the sleep physician in the sleep study report, a follow-up sleep test while using the appliance may be indicated. The test is done to determine the objective effectiveness of the MAS.
*Telehealth Appointments are only required if indicated in the report.
Re Medicare
Medicare has criteria and barriers that make it difficult for dental patients to receive rebates. The Medicare criteria also result in inefficiencies, extended steps, and delays for patients.
The problems include the following:
- Only GPs and sleep physicians can refer a patient for a sleep study. Dentists are unable to refer and would need to send the patient to a GP, hoping they will refer on their behalf.
- The patient needs to complete a questionnaire and have significant symptoms of tiredness and sleepiness, or they won’t qualify. Many dental patients have problematic snoring and will not be symptomatic enough to meet the criteria of the questionnaire. It is of concern to sleep physicians that even people with severe undiagnosed sleep apnoea may not qualify.
- Medicare-based sleep studies are usually not bulk billed and there is an out-of-pocket cost for the patient.
In order to overcome these issues, many sleep physicians have recommended that the most efficient and simple system for dentists to diagnose their patients and be able to efficiently institute treatment, is to avoid using Medicare. 3D Sleep Diagnostics was established to provide this service.
Turnaround Time
Our commitment is to provide the fastest possible service that will be significantly quicker than the traditional referral pathway, which can be costly and take months to complete.
3D Sleep Diagnostics will send a sleep study unit to the patient within two business days of submitting the referral. Once your patient has completed the sleep test, a report will be available to the dentist within five business days.