Phenotyping Sleep Apnea and Predicting Oral Appliance Success

New knowledge of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) pathophysiology has highlighted the heterogeneity of this common chronic health condition. Recent advances in OSA ‘phenotyping’ concepts have provided a novel framework in which to understand OSA pathophysiology on an individual patient basis. This has also provided new potential precision medicine strategies to optimize efficacy and success rates with current OSA treatments including mandibular advancement therapy.

This review summarizes how different ‘phenotypes’ contribute to OSA pathophysiology and highlights the potential mechanisms by which mandibular advancement splints alter upper airway physiology according to an OSA phenotyping framework. In addition, it explains how understanding these phenotypes can facilitate novel and improved approaches to therapy, with a focus on phenotyping to improve mandibular advancement splint treatment prediction and efficacy. The potential to translate phenotyping concepts into the clinical setting is also discussed. Learn more.