Multilevel oral appliance and method for maintaining a pharyngeal airway

An apparatus for grasping and restraining a front portion of the tongue of a user, engaging a rear portion of the tongue of the user, and engaging the soft palate of a user rearwardly of the hard palate of the user so as to resist closing of the pharyngeal airway of the user, the apparatus comprising:

• a first upper support;
• the first upper support comprising a first tongue gripping surface, the first tongue gripping surface comprising a plurality of tongue engaging projections that extend toward the upper surface of the tongue of a user;
• an upper jaw coupler adapted to couple the first support to the upper jaw of the user, the upper jaw coupler comprising an upper hard palate engaging portion;
• a second lower support;
• the second lower support comprising a second tongue gripping surface, the second tongue gripping surface comprising a plurality of tongue engaging projections that extend toward the lower surface of the tongue of a user;
• a lower jaw coupler adapted to couple the second support to the lower jaw of the user;
• at least one biasing member coupled to at least one of the first and second supports and adapted to urge at least one of the first and second tongue gripping surfaces toward the other of the first and second tongue gripping surfaces with the user's tongue positioned therebetween so as to grasp and restrain the tongue of the user;
• a tongue depressor mounted at a first location to upper hard palate engaging portion and projecting rearwardly and downwardly relative to the first location;
• a soft palate engager mounted at a second location to the upper hard palate engaging portion and projecting rearwardly relative to the second location;
• and
• wherein the tongue depressor and soft palate engager are adapted to urge the rear surface of the tongue and the engaged portion of the soft palate away from one another so as to resist closing of the pharyngeal airway of the user.

An upper jaw assembly for an apparatus for grasping and restraining the tongue of a user and for urging the rear portion of a tongue of a user away from the soft palate of a user, the upper jaw assembly comprising:

• a first upper support;
• the first upper support comprising an upper support body portion comprising an upper surface, a lower surface, a front, a rear, and first and second sides, the first upper support also comprising a first tongue gripping surface, the first tongue gripping surface comprising a plurality of tongue engaging projections that extend from the lower surface of the upper support body portion toward the upper surface of the front portion of the tongue of a user;
• an upper jaw coupler adapted to couple the first support to the upper jaw of the user, the upper jaw coupler comprising a cross portion spanning the users mouth from one side thereof to the other, wherein the upper support body portion is pivotally coupled to the upper jaw coupler such that the front and rear of the upper support body portion are movable upwardly and downwardly relative to the upper jaw coupler;
• a tongue depressor coupled to the cross portion and projecting rearwardly and downwardly from the cross portion for engaging a rear portion of the upper surface of a user's tongue, wherein the tongue depressor is movable relative to the cross portion in upward and downward directions;
• and
• a soft palate engager coupled to the cross portion and projecting at least rearwardly from the cross portion for engaging the user's soft palate, wherein the soft palate engager is movable relative to the cross portion in upward and downward directions.

A method of resisting closure of the pharyngeal airway of an individual comprising:

• holding the tongue of the user in a protruded position;
• depressing a rear portion of the user's tongue;
• pushing the soft palate away from the rear portion of the user's tongue;
• and
• wherein the above acts are simultaneously performed to urge the pharyngeal airway to an open state.

A multilevel oral appliance for resisting closure of the pharyngeal airway of a user of the appliance, the appliance comprising:

• a tongue protrusion mechanism comprising a first tongue gripping portion coupled to the upper jaw of the appliance user and a second tongue gripping portion coupled to the lower jaw of the appliance user, at least one biasing member operable to bias the first and second tongue gripping portions toward a tongue gripping position to hold the tongue of the appliance user in a protruded position;
• a rear tongue portion depressing mechanism coupled to the tongue protrusion mechanism and positioned to engage a rear surface portion of the tongue of the user of the appliance;
• and
• a soft palate elevating mechanism coupled to the tongue protrusion mechanism and positioned to engage and support the soft palate of the user of the appliance, the tongue depressing mechanism and soft palate elevating mechanism urging the engaged portion of the soft palate and engaged rear surface portion of the tongue away from one another.

An upper jaw coupling portion of a pharyngeal airway maintaining apparatus comprising:

• a support adapted for coupling to an upper jaw of a user of the apparatus;
• a tongue gripping element coupled to the support, the tongue gripping element comprising a tongue gripping surface with plural upper tongue surface engaging projections;
• and
• first and second tissue contacting members carried by the support, the first tissue contacting member being positioned to engage a rear surface of the tongue of the user at least during a portion of the time that the support is coupled to the upper jaw of the user, the first tissue contacting member being operable to apply a biasing force to the engaged rear surface of the tongue of the user, the second tissue contacting member being positioned to engage a portion of the soft palate of the user at least during a portion of the time that the support is coupled to the upper jaw of the user, the second tissue contacting member being operable to apply a biasing force to the engaged portion of the soft palate of the user.