International Dental Arts offers dental practitioners a hands-on course that prepares each dentist to immediately incorporate oral appliance therapy for obstructive sleep apnea into their practice.
The seminar will run from 6-9 p.m. April 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. Aprll 4 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 5. The seminar will be held at the Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
For the last three years, the field of dental sleep medicine has presented an outstanding opportunity to the dentists offering this treatment to their patients suffering from the insidious side affects of obstructive sleep apnea.
As of March 14, the landscape became even more appealing as Medicare announced that it will now begin paying for home ambulatory testing and that oral appliance therapy may be considered a conservative alternative to CPAP. This is a step in the right direction.
On a patient by patient basis, we will soon know if and when Medicare will pay for oral appliances. This is encouraging in as much as what Medicare does, insurance companies usually follow.
Oral appliance therapy is reimbursed by medical insurance and the payments can be anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 per patient. We are improving the quality of life and, in fact, saving the lives of many patients and doing quite well financially at the same time.
Doctors registering by this Friday and providing us with impressions and a bite registration of their own mouth will be tested in the comfort of their own home, and/or hotel, using the Remmers Recorder. The results will be analyzed by Dr. John Remmers, pulmonologist, one of the world's leading researchers in OSA, and developer of his home ambulatory testing device, the Remmers Recorder.
The lecture will continue all day Friday. Friday evening, OASYS appliances will be seated and testing will be conducted again, with the OASYS appliances in place.
This course will feature the OASYS, TAP and SomnoMed oral appliances. Each dentist and staff member will learn clinical protocol for sleep dentistry, the benefits of each device and when they should be prescribed for your patients.
Dr. Mark Abramson (OASYS), Dr. Keith Thornton (TAP) and Ashley Truitt (SomnoMed) will instruct attendees on the protocol for their appliance including correct impressions, bite registrations, delivery, adjustments and after care. Rose Nierman of Nierman Practice Management will offer support services for her time-tested software, DentalWriter (a diagnostic report and cross code software).
The screening of your existing patients by you or your staff, and providing those patients with oral appliances, should keep your office busy for the next year.
You will also master the business and marketing side of sleep dentistry, the medical reimbursement insurance and the seamless integration of sleep dentistry into your practice.
For more information, go to International Dental Arts.
To read more about sleep apnea, go to sleep apnea.
