• It is often a life-changing treatment that significantly enhances your patients’ health and quality of life,
• It is a source of significant revenue for the dentist,
• The treatment is not physically taxing – mostly conversational with grateful patients and dealing with their overall health and well being.

You would have many existing patients in your practice who would benefit greatly from this service.

The Presenters

Dr Amanda Phoon Nguyen is a Perth Oral medicine specialist, adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia, and a consultant at Perth Children’s Hospital.

She is the current co-chair of the Australasian Sleep Association, Dental Sleep Medicine Council and an examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons.

She is also on the Board of Studies in Oral Medicine for the RACDS and vice president of the Dental Specialists Society of WA.  Dr Phoon Nguyen regularly publishes and reviews for renowned journals.  She has expertise in bruxism, dental sleep medicine and temporomandibular disorders,  among other areas.

Dr Harry Ball is the past co-chairperson of the Dental Sleep Medicine Council of the Australasian Sleep Association. He is one of the most experienced practitioners in the world, having established SleepWise Clinic in 2001, which has now treated over 15,000 patients with oral appliances.

Dr Ball has lectured extensively for the Australian Dental Association and the Australasian Sleep Association, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Areas Covered

Snoring & Sleep Apnoea

Screening

Validated methods of identifying the many patients in your practice that have problems with snoring and sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea and problematic snoring significantly impact the quality of life and health, with over 80% of adults who have sleep apnoea unaware they have it. Identifying and treating these patients is often a life-changing and valuable service for the practice.

Sleep Studies

Simple, fast and cost-effective methods of providing sleep tests for patients suspected of having sleep apnoea are the most significant barrier for dentists in treating patients with an oral appliance. Fortunately, sleep tests such as this, specifically developed for dental patients, are now available and will be discussed in the webinar.

Following a sleep test, it is crucial that a report, which includes the diagnosis and treatment recommendations, is provided by a sleep physician knowledgeable in dental sleep medicine.

Treatment

Custom-made appliances and the CPAP machine have been proven to be the only two effective treatments for snoring and sleep apnoea. Dentists are fortunate to have a treatment option that is virtually as effective as the CPAP machine yet far more comfortable.

Breakthroughs in technology have resulted in extremely thin appliances with an exceptional fit and virtually unbreakable in the mouth. There is now a large and increasing demand for trained dentists providing oral appliance therapy. If you are not providing this treatment, you may lose patients to dentists who are.

Bruxism

Treatment

One of the most common clinical problems in dental practice is the impact of bruxism on teeth, muscles and the temporomandibular joint.

Areas covered:

The methods of identifying the patients with active bruxism,
Identifying the causative factors – important for developing an effective treatment plan,
Treating Bruxism and the role of an appropriately designed occlusal splint.