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"Why would removing your wisdom teeth make your airways smaller?" Because the teeth are anchoring the soft tissue of the palate in place, along with the tongue

"Why would removing your wisdom teeth make your airways smaller?" Because the teeth are anchoring the soft tissue of the palate in place, along with the tongue, preventing them from collapsing at night during REM sleep when one's muscles relax (including in the soft palate and airways). Note that one standard surgical procedure -- maxillomandibular advancement -- for treating sleep apnea involves breaking the jaw and moving it forward ~10mm, which increases the size of the airways. This procedure has a 90% success rate. Wisdom teeth extraction is essentially the "opposite" of this procedure -- fewer teeth means the jaw recesses farther back, making the airways smaller. I wear a dental appliance right now to treat my apnea that is custom-molded to the shape of my teeth and moves my lower jaw forward. It's an Elastic Mandibular Advancement Appliance (EMA). I'm worried the dental appliance won't be as effective after I remove some of my teeth (each tooth helps anchor and support the appliance). Considering how debilitating sleep apnea is, I just can't take any chances with it.

sp332 11y ago
Do you talk to a dentist to get one of those, or an orthodontist, or what?
- Hydraulix989 11y ago
  To get the surgery or the dental appliance? For the appliance, there are dentists that specialize in "dental sleep medicine." If you have good insurance, this is the way to go. Otherwise, you're looking at a $4,000 bill. It is the best option. If you're in Pittsburgh, I recommend Dr. Rob Rogers, DDS. DIY can get you almost the same thing though for an order of magnitude less (and is worth a shot depending on your insurance): http://doctorstevenpark.com/an-in-depth-look-at-diy-snoring-mouthpieces http://doctorstevenpark.com/an-in-depth-look-at-diy-snoring-... After my employer downgraded their insurance post-Obamacare to only an HMO, and I needed a new dental appliance, I ordered the ProSnore, which was also laboratory molded. I had to send molds to their lab, and then they sent back the dental appliance that they fabricated. The end result was more or less equivalent to what I had before from Dr. Rogers. There's an opportunity here for a 3D printing startup to disrupt sleep apnea/snoring treatment... ;) For the surgery, you really need to make sure you see a high quality surgeon. In Palo Alto, there is Dr. Kasey Li, possible the world's foremost expert in treating sleep apnea through jaw surgery: http://www.sleepapneasurgery.com/ http://www.sleepapneasurgery.com/ To answer your question, he is an MD, ENT, dentist, plastic surgeon, and researcher all-in-one. It is a hefty penny though. You're looking at the cost of a Tesla Model S to get the procedure, and it is out-of-network for PPO insurance plans (he specifically mentioned to me that Apple and Google employees had a lot of trouble getting it covered, but NVIDIA did not, I know that Stanford student insurance also covers it). I would research this procedure first. There's a lot of blog posts on patient outcomes. It really is effective, but so is CPAP, and you can still drive your Elon Musk mobile afterwards with the money you saved lol! Also, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" certainly applies here, especially when the hammer stands to make $100k. :)

sp332 11y ago

Do you talk to a dentist to get one of those, or an orthodontist, or what?

Hydraulix989 11y ago
To get the surgery or the dental appliance? For the appliance, there are dentists that specialize in "dental sleep medicine." If you have good insurance, this is the way to go. Otherwise, you're looking at a $4,000 bill. It is the best option. If you're in Pittsburgh, I recommend Dr. Rob Rogers, DDS. DIY can get you almost the same thing though for an order of magnitude less (and is worth a shot depending on your insurance): http://doctorstevenpark.com/an-in-depth-look-at-diy-snoring-mouthpieces http://doctorstevenpark.com/an-in-depth-look-at-diy-snoring-... After my employer downgraded their insurance post-Obamacare to only an HMO, and I needed a new dental appliance, I ordered the ProSnore, which was also laboratory molded. I had to send molds to their lab, and then they sent back the dental appliance that they fabricated. The end result was more or less equivalent to what I had before from Dr. Rogers. There's an opportunity here for a 3D printing startup to disrupt sleep apnea/snoring treatment... ;) For the surgery, you really need to make sure you see a high quality surgeon. In Palo Alto, there is Dr. Kasey Li, possible the world's foremost expert in treating sleep apnea through jaw surgery: http://www.sleepapneasurgery.com/ http://www.sleepapneasurgery.com/ To answer your question, he is an MD, ENT, dentist, plastic surgeon, and researcher all-in-one. It is a hefty penny though. You're looking at the cost of a Tesla Model S to get the procedure, and it is out-of-network for PPO insurance plans (he specifically mentioned to me that Apple and Google employees had a lot of trouble getting it covered, but NVIDIA did not, I know that Stanford student insurance also covers it). I would research this procedure first. There's a lot of blog posts on patient outcomes. It really is effective, but so is CPAP, and you can still drive your Elon Musk mobile afterwards with the money you saved lol! Also, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" certainly applies here, especially when the hammer stands to make $100k. :)