In short
CPAP alternatives are treatments for obstructive sleep apnea that keep the airway open during sleep without a mask or a pressurized air machine, the most common being a custom oral appliance that holds the lower jaw slightly forward. At Form + Function Dental Aesthetics in Las Vegas, Dr. Kevin screens for sleep apnea, records overnight oxygen with a SleepStat BLE pulse oximeter, images the airway and jaw joints on a large view CBCT, and treats with custom appliances, MARPE expansion, laser therapy and jaw repositioning. Obstructive sleep apnea is diagnosed by a physician, so the practice coordinates with your sleep physician, and any change to prescribed therapy such as CPAP is a decision you make with that physician.
CPAP alternatives are treatments for obstructive sleep apnea that keep the airway open during sleep without a mask, a hose and a pressurized machine. At Form + Function Dental Aesthetics in Las Vegas, the alternative patients ask about most is a custom oral appliance worn at night that holds the lower jaw slightly forward so the airway stays open. Where the narrowing is structural, Dr. Kevin can treat the structure itself rather than work around it.
One thing has to be clear before anything else. Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition, diagnosed by a physician and not by a dentist. What we do at our Summerlin studio is screen for it, record your oxygen overnight, image your airway and jaw joints in three dimensions, and treat with dental appliances and airway focused dentistry, alongside the sleep physician who holds your diagnosis.
If you are already using a CPAP machine, keep using it. Whether you change that therapy, add to it or stop it is a decision you make with the physician who prescribed it, never one you make from a website. What we add is better information for that decision, and an appliance if that is the direction the two of you choose.
Why patients look for CPAP alternatives
CPAP works well when it is worn. That is the honest starting point, and nobody here will talk you out of a machine that is doing its job. The difficulty is the wearing of it, every night, for years. Many people prescribed CPAP find they cannot wear it every night: the mask leaks, the hose follows you around the bed, and the machine slowly migrates to the closet. A machine in the closet treats nothing.
The scale of this is larger than most people realize. Nearly 30 million Americans experience interrupted breathing during sleep. Only about 6 million have been diagnosed, which means roughly 80% of people with sleep apnea do not know they have it. Many have been tired for years and have blamed age, stress or a schedule that never lets up.
How do I know if my breathing at night is the problem?
You usually notice it during the day rather than at night, because the interruptions happen while you are asleep. Snoring and pauses in breathing are usually reported by a partner. The signs worth mentioning to Dr. Kevin are ordinary enough that most people have stopped noticing them:
- Waking up exhausted after a full night of sleep
- Daytime sleepiness that coffee does not fix
- Snoring, or pauses in breathing a partner has noticed
- Waking with a dry mouth or a headache
- Focus and memory that feel duller than they used to
- Morning jaw soreness, clenching or grinding
- High blood pressure, or weight that is difficult to move
None of that is a diagnosis and we will not treat it as one. It is a reason to be screened. What treatment changes for any individual depends on anatomy, diagnosis and how consistently an appliance is worn, and Dr. Kevin will be plain with you about that.
What can I use instead of a CPAP machine?
The alternative offered most often at Form + Function is a custom mandibular advancement appliance: a fitted device worn during sleep that holds the lower jaw slightly forward so the airway behind the tongue stays open. Where the narrowing is skeletal rather than positional, Dr. Kevin can treat the jaw itself.
- The alternative offered most often at Form + Function is a custom oral appliance: a fitted device worn during sleep that holds the lower jaw slightly forward so the airway behind the tongue stays open. No mask, no hose, no machine.
- MARPE, or microimplant assisted rapid palatal expansion: widening of a narrow upper jaw with the support of small implants, which increases the space available to the airway.
- Laser therapy: a dental laser used in the treatment of airway soft tissue. Dr. Kevin will explain what it can and cannot address in your case.
- Jaw repositioning: nonsurgical treatment that guides the bite and jaw toward a position that supports an open airway.
Which option applies to you depends on where your airway narrows, what your diagnosis says about severity, and what your physician recommends. Some patients use an appliance in place of CPAP, some only when they travel, some use both. Dr. Kevin will say plainly if a dental appliance is not the right answer for you.
How we evaluate your airway in Summerlin
Every recommendation starts from recorded data. The SleepStat BLE is a high resolution pulse oximeter you take home and wear overnight, so what your oxygen actually does in your own bed is recorded rather than guessed at. The large view CBCT produces a full three dimensional image from head to neck, which shows Dr. Kevin the airway itself, the upper jaw and the jaw joints. Appliances are built from a digital scan of your bite, with no impression material.
Those records go into a conversation, not a sales pitch. Dr. Kevin walks you through what he sees and coordinates with your sleep physician so the diagnosis and the dental treatment agree with each other. His interest in this work began with his own diagnosis: an elite athlete who could not get enough oxygen, which turned out to be a narrow airway rather than a fitness problem. Where the right care sits outside a dental office, including oral surgery, we refer within a trusted network of Las Vegas providers.
Can I stop using my CPAP once I have an oral appliance?
Stopping CPAP is a decision that belongs to you and the physician who prescribed the machine, and it should be made from follow up data rather than from how you feel in the first week. The usual sequence: you continue prescribed therapy, we fit the appliance and adjust it over several visits, your physician arranges whatever testing is appropriate, and any change comes from those results.
What do CPAP alternatives cost, and will insurance cover them?
There is no flat price for airway treatment because there is no flat treatment. An appliance on its own is a different scope of work than palatal expansion, laser therapy or jaw repositioning, and the diagnostic records that come first vary from patient to patient. You receive the full cost in writing before treatment begins, and nothing starts until you have read it and agreed to it.
We accept most PPO dental insurance plans and we are in network with a select few. Coverage for airway appliances varies considerably by plan and by diagnosis, so we review your benefits and tell you what we find rather than promise what a plan will pay. Payment plans and third party financing are reviewed at your consultation. Appointments canceled or rescheduled with less than 24 hours notice are subject to a $50 fee.
Your first visit is unhurried by design. About two hours are reserved for every new patient at 4205 S. Grand Canyon Dr. #19, next to Target at the Grand Canyon Shoppes, and one patient is seen at a time. Expect a real conversation about how you sleep and how you feel during the day, an airway focused exam, imaging where it is warranted, and overnight oxygen recording if screening points that way. The comfort menu is complimentary: noise canceling headphones, a weighted blanket, eye patches, aromatherapy. We see patients Monday through Thursday, 8:00am to 5:00pm.
