If the sleep study report shows mild to moderate OSA, or severe OSA but the person only has mild fatigue symptoms, a MAS (Mandibular Advancement Splint) is often the best treatment option. This is a mouth guard made specially for each person based on a mould taken by a dentist that the patient wears at night which holds the lower jaw forward, keeping a greater opening in the upper airway. A simple way to understand the concept is if you try to make a snoring noise with a resting face, then try again while jutting your chin forward, snoring becomes a lot harder, or even impossible. A MAS device is not as effective as CPAP, in most cases of moderate sleep apnea it can decrease the number of respiratory events by between 50-80% but for some patients, especially those with a high BMI, it is less effective than that. The benefit of MAS over CPAP is the increased comfort and ease to use and transport.
A diagnostic sleep study by Home Sleep can also identify possible teeth grinding (bruxism). Sleep-related bruxism occurs during awakenings triggered by obstructed breathing. As the brain identifies a decrease in breathing, it wakes itself up and tenses the muscles in the upper airway, opening the passage to allow better airflow. This tensing around the back of the throat and jaw in some people causes teeth grinding. A MAS reduces obstructive breathing, treating the cause of bruxism as well as preventing teeth damage if some bruxism remains.
In some specific cases of milder sleep apnea, or if snoring is the only issue, laser therapy can be used to reduce inflammation and tighten up the soft tissue in the mouth and throat. Laser snoring treatments are non-invasive procedures that use carefully controlled heating to stimulate the tissue in the soft palate, restoring strength and elasticity to the soft tissue which keeps it from collapsing and partially blocking the airway. Generally, patients undergo three separate treatments of the therapy. It is not generally a recommended treatment for sleep apnea as studies have shown it to be unreliable. In some patients it will completely eliminate snoring for a few months or years before it slowly comes back, albeit to lower levels than before the treatment, in which case maintenance treatments can be performed to continue strengthening the tissue. In other cases, the improvement to snoring is minimal to unnoticeable. Despite low efficacy for some people, laser therapy is a safe, non-invasive procedure that requires no anaesthetic and has been shown to significantly reduce the severity of snoring and, in some cases, sleep apnea.