How Collaborative Care for Sleep Disorders Could Be Better

Dentists who are committed to the practice of dental sleep medicine have access to multiple avenues of higher training and credentialing. Dentists can also consider joining nonprofit organizations such as the AADSM, thereby giving them access to guidelines, standards, research, and mentors. Physicians who find limited access to qualified dentists can share the AADSM’s resources with dentists in their local communities and create partnerships with credentialed dental sleep medicine practitioners.

The seriousness of sleep disorders, and their central effect upon all areas of patient health, cannot be overstated. The body cannot heal itself from illness or injury without regenerative sleep. Lack of sleep contributes to systemic conditions, leading to a chain of effects that cause overall health and quality of life to deteriorate. Patients and their physicians often do not recognize the role of sleep as an aggravator of other conditions until obvious symptoms appear. Treatment of sleep disorders necessitates a multi-layered management approach.

Physicians and dentists must work together to co-manage patients by screening, making appropriate referrals, and establishing clear communication protocols to help guide sleep-deprived, frustrated patients toward therapeutic options that best meet their needs. The key to a cohesive treatment plan is clear communication between providers on a patient’s wellness team. When providers work collaboratively, this empowers the patient to make well-informed decisions on a modality of therapy that they will be most compliant with resulting in better management of their sleep-disordered breathing.

Jennifer Q. Le, DMD, DABDSM, CPCC, is a dentist at Wake Dental Sleep in Raleigh, NC.

References

1. Sleep studies. National Sleep Foundation. Available at https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleep-studies.
2. Policy statement on the diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. American Academy of Sleep Medicine/American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. 7 Dec 2012. Available at https://aasm.org/resources/pdf/aadsmjointosapolicy.pdf.