Treatment of sleep apnea with a new separated type of dental appliance (mandibular advancing positioner).

We investigated a new separated type of dental appliance (mandibular advancing positioner: MAP) that is mobile and allows free adjustment of mandibular advancement. In 8 adult male patients with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS), the mean apnea index (AI) decreased from 31.1 to 4.2, and the mean apnea hypopnea index (AHI) decreased from 44.2 to 11.7. The distance of mandibular advancement using the Flankfort horizontal plane as a standard ranged in the 8 SAS patients from 1.8 to 5.0 mm by lateral cephalograms. A high positive correlation was observed between the distance of mandibular advancement and the rate of improvement in AI (R2 = 0.878), or the rate of AHI (R2 = 0.861), showing a higher improvement rate with more marked mandibular advancement.