Central Connecticut Orofacial Sleep Medicine is a multi-specialty medical practice in Stamford and Fairfield County, CT with doctors that have studied at the country’s top medical schools and facilities including Harvard, Columbia, Tufts and Albert Einstein. Whether you are suffering from headaches, facial pain or obstructive sleep apnea, our physicians can provide the treatment you need.

Central Connecticut Orofacial Sleep Medicine: Your Partner in Sleep Apnea Treatment

The relationship between orofacial pain and sleep is a well-known clinical problem, with reciprocal associations between orofacial pain and bruxism and also between bruxism and sleep disorders such as primary headaches, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and obstructive sleep apnoea. Dental patients are more likely to be affected by these disorders than the general population, and they are often referred by their dentists for evaluation and management.

To improve the chairside assessment of these patients, it would be beneficial to know which of the comorbid sleep disorders these patients may have, as this will help in their personalised management by the dentist (Table 2). Hence, the objective of this article is to describe the current insights into oro-facial pain and its interaction with sleep from a North American point of view. This will then lead into an explanation of the role of dentists who have a specific interest in Dental Sleep Medicine in the recognition and management of sleep-related orofacial pain, bruxism and obstructive sleep apnoea. It will also encourage the professional collaboration between dentists and medical experts in the field of sleep medicine.