We conducted a multicenter survey for oral appliance (OA) therapy to grasp and analyze the current situation of OA therapy, including efficacy, side effects, and follow-up, in Japan. The Japanese cross-sectional multicenter survey (JAMS) for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was undertaken by patients in 10 institutions associated with oral appliance therapy during two years, from 2014 to 2015, retrospectively. Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), baseline apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), OA type, adjustment, adverse reactions with OA, and AHI with OA were elicited from the patient clinical record. The number of included OSA patients was 3217. The number of patients with OA therapy was 2947. We evaluated 1600 patients for the OA treatment. The patients treated with OA, both male and female, were most commonly in their 50s. In terms of OSA severity, snoring was 2.3%, mild was 38.5%, moderate was 39.9%, and severe was 19.3%. The use of mono bloc appliance was 91.8%, bi bloc appliance was 7.9%, and tongue-retaining device (TRD) was 0.3%. After OA treatment, AHI decreased from 22.4/h to 9.3/h. The AHI reduction rate with OA was 52.0%. The rate of AHI <5 with OA was 35.6%. Adverse reactions developed in 14.7% of the subjects. OA reassessment was conducted for 54.3%. This study revealed the current situation of efficacy and side effects of OA therapy, and the problem that the reassessment rate of OA was low in Japan.
Keywords: multicenter survey; obstructive sleep apnea (OSA); oral appliance (OA).