Waking up exhausted despite sleeping eight hours, experiencing morning headaches, or hearing from your bed partner that you snore loudly and stop breathing during the night signals more than poor sleep quality. These symptoms often indicate obstructive sleep apnea, a serious chronic condition affecting approximately 83.7 million American adults according to recent research published in Respiratory Medicine. Left untreated, obstructive sleep apnea increases risks for high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and other life-threatening health complications.
At Airway Dental and More, Dr. Neil K. Stevenson, DMD provides comprehensive adult airway and sleep apnea treatment through dental sleep medicine. Our Jacksonville practice offers custom-made oral appliances as an effective alternative to CPAP therapy for patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea, and for those with severe obstructive sleep apnea who cannot tolerate continuous positive airway pressure machines. Serving adults throughout Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, we help patients achieve restful sleep and protect their overall health through evidence-based oral appliance therapy.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when soft tissues in the upper airway collapse during sleep, blocking airflow and causing repeated breathing interruptions. These episodes force your brain to briefly wake you throughout the night, disrupting sleep cycles and preventing restorative rest. The condition affects 32.4% of American adults, with men experiencing higher prevalence rates than women. Age and obesity significantly increase OSA risk, though the condition affects people across all demographics.
Opened Upper Airway
Closed Upper Airway
Sleep apnea symptoms manifest both during sleep and throughout waking hours. Your bed partner may notice loud snoring patterns interrupted by silence when you pause breathing, followed by gasping or choking sounds as breathing resumes. You might experience restless sleep, frequent nighttime urination, or waking with a dry mouth and sore throat. During daytime hours, excessive sleepiness despite adequate time in bed, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and morning headaches commonly occur. These symptoms significantly impact work performance, relationships, and quality of life.
The health consequences extend far beyond feeling tired. Untreated obstructive sleep apnea stresses your cardiovascular system, contributing to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, heart disease, and increased stroke risk. The condition also affects metabolic health, worsening insulin resistance and complicating diabetes management. Understanding these connections underscores the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment.
While CPAP machines remain the most widely prescribed treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, many patients struggle with CPAP therapy due to discomfort, claustrophobia, noise, or difficulty traveling with equipment. Custom-made oral appliances offer an effective, comfortable alternative supported by extensive research and clinical success.
Oral appliances for sleep apnea resemble athletic mouthguards but serve a fundamentally different purpose. These precision-crafted devices gently reposition your lower jaw forward during sleep, keeping your airway open by preventing soft tissue collapse. The forward positioning maintains airway patency throughout the night, allowing unobstructed breathing and restful sleep. Unlike CPAP machines requiring electricity, hoses, and nasal masks, oral appliances are compact, silent, and travel-friendly. Many patients find them significantly more comfortable and easier to use consistently than continuous positive airway pressure systems.
Our Jacksonville practice provides custom-fitted oral appliances tailored to your specific anatomy and sleep apnea severity. Generic, over-the-counter devices cannot achieve the precise positioning required for effective treatment and may cause jaw discomfort or dental problems. Professional fitting ensures optimal effectiveness while protecting your dental health.
Oral appliances work particularly well for patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea, typically defined as 5 to 30 breathing interruptions per hour. Research demonstrates excellent outcomes for these severity levels, with many patients achieving normalized breathing patterns and symptom resolution. Patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea who cannot tolerate CPAP therapy also benefit from oral appliances, as consistent use of oral appliance therapy produces better health outcomes than an unused CPAP machine collecting dust in a closet.
Your dental health factors into treatment planning. Adequate teeth for appliance retention, healthy gums, and proper jaw function support successful oral appliance therapy. We conduct thorough evaluations to ensure oral appliance therapy represents an appropriate treatment option for your specific situation.
Effective sleep apnea treatment begins with accurate diagnosis. We coordinate with sleep medicine physicians and sleep labs to ensure you receive appropriate testing. A sleep study measures your breathing patterns, oxygen levels, heart rate, and sleep stages, providing the data necessary to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea and determine its severity. Home sleep apnea tests offer convenient options for many patients, while others benefit from comprehensive overnight monitoring in a sleep lab.
Once your sleep study confirms obstructive sleep apnea and establishes the severity level, we develop your personalized treatment plan. Our advanced diagnostic technology includes airway assessment tools like WatchPAT, Pharyngometer, and Rhinometer that evaluate your upper airway anatomy and identify specific obstruction sites.
Creating effective oral appliances requires precision and expertise. We take detailed impressions of your teeth and jaw, capturing exact measurements that ensure proper fit and function. Our custom-made oral appliances are fabricated using durable, biocompatible materials designed for nightly use over many years. The initial fitting appointment involves careful adjustment to achieve optimal jaw positioning that keeps your airway open while maintaining comfort.
We provide thorough instructions on appliance insertion, removal, and care. Regular follow-up appointments allow us to fine-tune positioning and address any comfort concerns. Most patients adapt to their oral appliance within a few nights, experiencing immediate improvements in sleep quality and daytime energy levels.
Successful sleep apnea treatment requires ongoing monitoring to ensure continued effectiveness. We schedule regular follow-up appointments to assess your progress, evaluate appliance condition, and make any necessary adjustments. Follow-up sleep studies verify that your oral appliance effectively maintains open airways throughout the night. These objective measurements confirm treatment success and guide any needed modifications.
Your jaw position may shift over time, or weight changes might affect treatment effectiveness. Our monitoring protocol identifies these changes early, allowing prompt adjustments that maintain optimal results. This comprehensive approach ensures you receive the maximum benefit from oral appliance therapy long-term.
While oral appliances effectively treat obstructive sleep apnea, combining treatment with complementary approaches often enhances outcomes. Myofunctional therapy strengthens tongue and throat muscles, improving airway stability even during sleep. These exercises target the muscles responsible for maintaining proper tongue position and upper airway tone. Many patients experience reduced sleep apnea severity through consistent myofunctional therapy practice.
Lifestyle modifications play an important role in sleep apnea management. Weight loss significantly reduces OSA severity for overweight patients, as decreased adipose tissue around the neck reduces airway compression. Sleeping position affects airway patency, with side sleeping generally proving more beneficial than back sleeping. Avoiding alcohol before bedtime prevents excessive muscle relaxation that worsens airway collapse. We provide guidance on these factors as part of your comprehensive treatment plan.
For patients with specific anatomical concerns, our practice offers additional interventions. Tongue tie treatment addresses restricted tongue mobility that can contribute to airway problems. Facial development assessment identifies structural factors affecting adult airway health. This integrated approach addresses multiple contributing factors simultaneously.
If you’re seeking information about sleep-disordered breathing in children, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, pediatric snoring, or other childhood airway concerns, please visit our dedicated pediatric airway dentistry page.
Dr. Stevenson’s transition from traditional general dentistry to an airway-focused mission reflects his commitment to addressing the root causes of dental and systemic health problems. His training in dental sleep medicine and airway management provides the expertise necessary for effective oral appliance therapy. Our practice combines advanced technology with personalized care, ensuring each patient receives treatment precisely tailored to their needs.
We understand the frustration of living with poor sleep quality and the health concerns accompanying untreated obstructive sleep apnea. Our Jacksonville practice serves patients throughout Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, with many traveling from across the United States for our comprehensive airway-focused approach. The practice philosophy centers on genuine care and meaningful patient relationships built on trust and proven results.
Our commitment to excellence extends to the technology we employ. Three-dimensional imaging and digital impressions ensure precise oral appliance fabrication. Airway assessment tools provide objective measurements that guide treatment planning and track progress. This technology-driven approach combined with clinical expertise produces consistent, predictable results for our sleep apnea patients.
Living with obstructive sleep apnea compromises your health, safety, and quality of life. Effective treatment restores restorative sleep, protects cardiovascular health, and dramatically improves daily functioning. If you experience symptoms of sleep apnea or have been diagnosed but cannot tolerate CPAP therapy, oral appliance therapy may provide the solution you’ve been seeking.
Dr. Stevenson and our Jacksonville team are ready to help you achieve the restful sleep and vibrant health you deserve. We accept new adult patients and provide comprehensive evaluations to determine whether oral appliance therapy suits your needs. Contact our office today to schedule your consultation and take the first step toward better sleep, improved health, and renewed energy for life’s activities.
Comprehensive airway treatments and family dental care with flexible financing to improve your health and smile.
Airway dentistry is a specialized field within dentistry that examines how the structure of the mouth influences breathing patterns and overall health. Dentists trained in airway dentistry use advanced diagnostic tools to assess patients for signs of compromised breathing, such as mouth breathing and malocclusion. By identifying these issues early on, our experienced Jacksonville dentists can develop personalized treatment plans to promote healthy breathing habits and optimal development of the airway from childhood into adulthood.
Myofunctional therapy is a specialized treatment designed to correct improper oral habits like tongue thrusting, mouth breathing, and incorrect swallowing patterns, which can affect breathing, speech, and overall oral health. These habits can lead to issues such as misaligned teeth, improper jaw development, and even sleep-disordered breathing.
We offer this therapy in-office for patients with a cognitive age of 4 and up, retraining the muscles of the mouth and throat to promote proper nasal breathing, improve swallowing function, and support overall well-being.
Our treatment approach begins with thorough assessment, recognizing the individual needs for each patient. Utilizing state-of-the-art technology such as CBCT scans, rhinometry, pharyngometry, and take-home sleep studies, we tailor treatment plans to effectively address the unique characteristics of each patient’s airway anatomy. From identifying malocclusion to addressing mouth breathing and other airway-related concerns, our personalized approach ensures precise and effective interventions.
Dental sleep medicine is a specialized field that focuses on using oral appliances and other dental interventions to treat sleep-disordered breathing, including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and snoring. At Airway Dental and More in Jacksonville, our team is trained in dental sleep medicine and can provide alternatives to CPAP machines for patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea. We create custom oral appliances that gently reposition your jaw and tongue during sleep to keep your airway open, allowing you to breathe easier and sleep more soundly. These FDA-approved devices are comfortable, portable, and much easier to use than CPAP machines. We work closely with sleep physicians to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment, and we monitor your progress with follow-up appointments and sleep studies when needed. Dental sleep medicine can dramatically improve your sleep quality, energy levels, and overall health.
Sleep apnea symptoms in adults include loud, chronic snoring, gasping or choking during sleep, witnessed pauses in breathing, excessive daytime sleepiness or fatigue, morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, irritability or mood changes, high blood pressure, waking up with a dry mouth or sore throat, frequent nighttime urination, and restless sleep. Many Jacksonville patients don’t realize they have sleep apnea because the most obvious symptoms occur while they’re sleeping. If your partner complains about your snoring or has noticed you stop breathing during sleep, it’s crucial to seek evaluation. Left untreated, sleep apnea increases your risk for serious health problems including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and depression. At Airway Dental and More, we can perform an initial screening and refer you for a sleep study if needed. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent long-term health complications and significantly improve your quality of life.
If you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea but find CPAP intolerable or ineffective, Airway Dental and More offers several proven alternatives. Custom oral appliances are the most popular CPAP alternative for patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea. These devices fit comfortably in your mouth like a retainer or mouthguard and work by positioning your lower jaw slightly forward to keep your airway open during sleep. They’re quiet, portable, easy to travel with, and have high patient compliance rates. For some Jacksonville patients, positional therapy devices may help if sleep apnea occurs primarily when sleeping on your back. We also provide guidance on lifestyle modifications that can reduce sleep apnea severity, including weight management, sleep position training, and avoiding alcohol before bed. Our team will evaluate your specific situation and create a personalized treatment plan. Many patients experience significant improvement with oral appliance therapy and report better sleep quality than they achieved with CPAP.
The cost of sleep apnea treatment varies depending on the type of intervention recommended and your insurance coverage. At Airway Dental and More in Jacksonville, custom oral appliances for sleep apnea typically range from $1,800 to $3,000, which includes the device fabrication, fitting appointments, and follow-up adjustments. Many medical insurance plans (not dental insurance) cover oral appliance therapy for sleep apnea when prescribed by a physician and provided by a qualified dentist, usually covering 50-80% of the cost after your deductible is met. Medicare also covers oral appliances for sleep apnea under specific conditions. We’ll verify your insurance benefits and provide a detailed cost estimate before beginning treatment. For patients without insurance coverage or those with high out-of-pocket costs, we offer flexible payment plans to make treatment accessible. Investing in sleep apnea treatment is an investment in your long-term health—untreated sleep apnea can lead to serious medical conditions that are far more expensive to treat.
You should consider seeing a sleep apnea dentist if you experience loud snoring, daytime fatigue despite getting adequate sleep hours, witnessed breathing pauses during sleep, morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, or if you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea but can’t tolerate CPAP therapy. At Airway Dental and More in Jacksonville, we can evaluate your airway anatomy, assess your risk for sleep-disordered breathing, and determine if you’re a candidate for oral appliance therapy. We use advanced diagnostic tools to examine your airway and tongue position and can refer you for a sleep study if you haven’t been formally diagnosed. If you’ve already been diagnosed with sleep apnea by a physician and are looking for CPAP alternatives, we can work with your doctor to provide effective treatment with a custom oral appliance. Many of our Jacksonville patients report life-changing improvements in their sleep quality, energy levels, and overall health after beginning oral appliance therapy. Don’t let poor sleep continue to impact your life—schedule a consultation to explore your treatment options.
Achieve the confident, healthy smile you deserve with personalized dental care at Airway Dental & More. Our airway and orthodontic team combines advanced technology with a compassionate approach to make every visit comfortable and stress-free. Whether you’re restoring your smile, improving function, or enhancing aesthetics, we’re here to help you reach your oral health goals with precision and care.
Ready to take the next step toward better oral health? Contact Airway Dental & More today at (904) 268-4466 or complete our contact form to schedule your consultation and discover how our team can make your smile shine.
