Dental Sleep Apnea Device

Abstract

The dental sleep apnea device and method utilizes a bite block (34) and a clear plastic tongue restrictor (38, 138) which is adjustable on the bite block by a coupling between a connecting rod with a spring-biased button assembly (46) that is capable of accommodating differing users' tongues (30). Sleep apnea is avoided by preventing the tongue from falling back during sleep and blocking the airway, and avoiding the creation of a diminished air supply, which can result a cessation of breathing while, at the same time, permitting the tongue to slide in an otherwise normal fashion. The tongue is thus not trapped in an uncomfortable manner and, therefore, during sleep, the patient can swallow because the tongue is allowed to move freely. When the tongue is so freely restricted, the patient will thus be able to rest as required and desired. The tongue restrictor coupling, when provided with swiveling and linear motion, enables the tongue restrictor to have a standard and fixed configuration which is couplable with any specifically formed bite block for multiple patients having differently sized mandibulars (lower jaws).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.