David Gergen President of Gergen’s Orthodontics has developed a new sleep apnea oral appliance design.”Fit and Finish are key to success with a Custom oral appliance” says David Gergen, “the appliance needs to SNAP into place with no adjustments”.
SNAP FIT TELESCOPIC HERBST APPLIANCE is a hybrid appliance of the Acrylic Herbst Appliance. The biggest difference between the two is the retention and added clasping with NO ADJUSTING. The Adams clasp is a custom fit clasp that should only be bent by a trained orthodontic technician. This appliance has 8 Adams clasps and no adjusting is ever needed because of this clasping system. The SNAP FIT also has a dual thick wire mesh integrated into the acrylic and added lingual frame work. This added features allow for an industry leading 3 year warranty.
This appliance has been proven to be effective on chronic snoring and mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea sufferers. This appliance allows patients to move laterally and vertically without disengaging the appliance from teeth. If it is determined that the initial position does not provide the anticipated relief of the condition, the mandible can easily be moved forward by allowing the clinician to advance in 1/8 mm increments by making one full turn of the protrusion collar up to 4 mm from the start position. An additional 5 mm can be gained by swapping out the short arms with the long arms which gives the Herbst a total number of 9mm advancement. We start them at +1 so you can retrude 1 mm for patient comfort. Fabrication from hard acrylic is recommended, thermo active and soft/hard materials is also available to retain teeth via friction grip or clasps.
The Herbst Sleep Appliance is a mandibular repositioner that has been in use many years for orthodontic and TMJ therapy prior to its modification for treatment of sleep disordered breathing. The greatest advantage of the SNAP FIT TELESCOPIC HERBST appliance is that it allows for very quick, easy and accurate mandibular protrusive adjustability. This is accomplished through simple manipulation of the rod/sleeve plunger mechanism. Vertical opening varies is 5 mm and there is limited freedom of movement for the mandible in a lateral direction. Bilateral inter-arch elastics are recommended to keep the jaw closed during sleep. There is no midline connection on the Herbst appliance. This is particularly useful when with claustrophobic patients.
The SNAP FIT TELESCOPIC HERBST is an excellent appliance that is cost effective with high patient compliance and allows in office correction with minimal chair time. Gergen’s Orthodontic Lab is the largest fabricator of Herbst style appliances in the United States. The SNAP FIT TELESCOPIC HERBST appliance has a PDAC number and qualifies for CMS reimbursement in the Medicare model.
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