Method and apparatus for treating sleep apnea

Abstract

An oral appliance is disclosed that provides electrical stimulation to a patient's tongue in a manner that prevents collapse of the tongue and / or soft palate during sleep. More specifically, the appliance may induce a reversible current or currents in a lateral direction across the tongue in a manner that shortens the patient's Palatoglossus muscle, which in turn pulls the patient's soft palate downward towards a base of the tongue and / or decreases a volume of the tongue.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a divisional application, and claims the benefit of co-pending and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14 / 149,689 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING SLEEP APNEA” filed on Jan. 7, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present embodiments relate generally to sleep apnea, and specifically to non-invasive techniques for treating one or more underlying causes and results of sleep apnea.BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART[0003]Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a medical condition in which a patient's upper airway is repeatedly partially or fully occluded during sleep. These repeated occlusions of the upper airway may cause sleep fragmentation, which in turn may result in sleep deprivation, daytime tiredness, and malaise. More serious instances of OSA may increase the patient's risk for stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and / or other disorders.[0004]OS...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Effectively maintains upper airway patency without moving the tongue forward, reducing the likelihood of waking the patient and minimizing discomfort, thus providing a more comfortable and effective treatment for OSA.

Problems solved by technology

These repeated occlusions of the upper airway may cause sleep fragmentation, which in turn may result in sleep deprivation, daytime tiredness, and malaise.

More serious instances of OSA may increase the patient's risk for stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and / or other disorders.

More specifically, OSA is typically caused by the collapse of the patient's soft palate and / or by the collapse of the patient's tongue (e.g., onto the back of the pharynx), which in turn may obstruct normal breathing.

These surgical techniques are very invasive.

However, these machines are uncomfortable and may have low compliance rates.

Moving a patient's tongue forward during sleep may cause the patient to wake, which is not desirable.

In addition, existing techniques for electrically stimulating the Hypoglossal nerve and / or the Genioglossus muscle may cause discomfort and / or pain, which is not desirable.

Further, invasive techniques for electrically stimulating the Hypoglossal nerve and / or the Genioglossus muscle undesirably require surgery and introduce foreign matter into the patient's tissue, which is undesirable.

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