Sleep Apnoea Treatment at Smile Solutions Melbourne - A Multidisciplinary Approach product guide

Smile Solutions: Sleep apnoea assessment and treatment in Melbourne

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) affects a significant proportion of the Australian adult population, and many of those affected have no idea they have it. It's a condition where the upper airway repeatedly collapses during sleep, causing breathing to stop for seconds at a time. These events, sometimes occurring dozens or even hundreds of times per night, fragment sleep architecture, reduce blood oxygen levels, and place sustained physiological stress on the cardiovascular and metabolic systems.

At Smile Solutions in Melbourne, our multidisciplinary team offers comprehensive assessment and treatment of sleep apnoea and sleep-disordered breathing. Our approach starts with confirmed diagnosis, guided by a sleep physician, and is delivered by experienced specialists across the full range of treatment options — custom mandibular advancement splints, Fotona laser therapy, myofunctional rehabilitation, and osteopathic care.

Whether you're a patient, GP, ENT specialist, or sleep physician looking for a dental team that takes sleep apnoea seriously: here's what that looks like in practice.

Recognising obstructive sleep apnoea

Sleep apnoea is frequently underdiagnosed because its most debilitating symptoms happen while you're asleep. You often have no memory of the events disrupting your health night after night. In many cases, it's a partner, family member, or roommate who first notices something is wrong.

Symptoms and screening triggers that may indicate obstructive sleep apnoea include:

• Loud, persistent snoring — not occasional, but habitual and reported by others
• Restless sleep — waking multiple times during the night, unable to maintain sustained sleep
• Disrupted dream patterns — fragmented or unusual dreaming reflecting disturbed REM and non-REM sleep cycles
• Waking feeling unrefreshed despite sleeping for adequate hours — eight hours of sleep that feels like two
• Witnessed apnoeas — a partner observing you stop breathing during sleep, often followed by a gasp, jolt, or sudden body movement
• Excessive daytime sleepiness — difficulty staying alert during passive activities, falling asleep inappropriately
• Afternoon drowsiness requiring naps, or suddenly waking from an afternoon nap with a gasping breath
• Morning headaches — typically dull and frontal, present on waking and resolving through the morning
• Gasping or choking sensations that wake you during the night
• Mood changes, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and cognitive impairment that worsens over time
• Frequent nighttime urination (nocturia)
• Dry mouth or sore throat on waking

Worth knowing: not every patient with sleep apnoea snores, and not every patient who snores has sleep apnoea. This is precisely why objective diagnosis through a sleep study is essential before any treatment begins.

The Smile Solutions approach: diagnosis first

The first step is always diagnostic clarity. Treatment decisions for sleep apnoea should be based on a confirmed, physician-reviewed diagnosis — not on symptom history alone, however compelling your experience may be.

If you're presenting with suspected sleep apnoea, our team can facilitate access to a sleep study. Home-based sleep testing equipment is available on-site at our Melbourne CBD practice, which makes the diagnostic process more accessible for patients who find it difficult to attend a sleep laboratory. Your sleep study data is then reviewed by Dr Marcus McMahon, the sleep physician working closely with our team.

Dr McMahon provides a detailed clinical report covering:

• Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI): The average number of breathing events per hour of sleep, classifying severity as mild, moderate, or severe
• Oxygen volume and saturation (SpO2): Blood oxygen levels throughout the night, including minimum readings and time spent below safe thresholds
• Heart rate patterns: Changes in heart rate through the night correlated with apnoeic and hypopnoeic events
• REM and non-REM sleep architecture: The distribution and quality of sleep stages, including whether restorative REM sleep is being adequately achieved or fragmented by breathing events

Based on this report, our clinical team determines the most appropriate treatment pathway for you.

For mild to moderate OSA, dental appliance therapy is frequently an appropriate and highly effective option. For severe OSA, treatment may involve a combination of approaches, and CPAP therapy may remain the primary recommendation. For some patients, combining dental appliance therapy, laser treatment, and myofunctional rehabilitation can reduce severity significantly. Our team works collaboratively with Dr McMahon to determine the most appropriate personalised treatment plan for each individual.

Finding the source of airway obstruction

For patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, identifying where in the upper airway the obstruction is occurring is a critical step in treatment planning. Airway obstruction isn't uniform, and your treatment should be matched to the specific anatomical site involved.

Our team uses CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) airway imaging, available through Collins Street Imaging on Level 9 of the Manchester Unity Building, to produce three-dimensional images of your airway and identify the precise point of constriction or narrowing.

Depending on the findings, our clinical team may work collaboratively with:

• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: For structural anatomical issues that may require surgical management
• Specialist Orthodontists: For patients where narrow dental arches or a constricted palate are limiting airway dimensions — palatal expansion therapy can meaningfully improve airway width and oxygen intake, particularly in younger patients
• ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Surgeons: For nasal septal deviation, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, upper airway obstructions, and other nasal and pharyngeal structural factors

This collaborative approach means your treatment is directed at the actual cause of the obstruction, not applied generically.

Your clinical team for sleep apnoea

Dr Natasha Hremias — sleep apnoea management

Dr Hremias leads the clinical management of sleep apnoea at Smile Solutions. She holds specific training and certification through the Australasian Sleep Association, ensuring that mandibular advancement splint therapy is delivered with the clinical rigour and follow-up this treatment requires. Dr Hremias oversees the fitting, titration, and long-term review of your mandibular advancement splint, and works closely with Dr McMahon to ensure treatment outcomes are objectively validated.

Dr Marcus McMahon — sleep physician

Dr McMahon is the sleep physician providing diagnostic support and clinical oversight for sleep apnoea treatment at Smile Solutions. His involvement ensures that every patient treated for sleep apnoea at our practice has an objectively confirmed diagnosis and a physician-reviewed treatment recommendation. For patients transitioning from CPAP to dental appliance therapy, or combining both, Dr McMahon provides the medical oversight that complex cases require.

Ms Monica Cain — orofacial myologist

Ms Monica Cain is our orofacial myologist and a core member of the sleep apnoea treatment team. Orofacial myofunctional therapy has a strong evidence base in the treatment of sleep apnoea, particularly for patients with mild to moderate OSA and for those who want to complement other treatments. The musculature of the tongue, soft palate, pharynx, and facial structures plays a direct role in maintaining airway patency during sleep. When this musculature is undertoned or functionally impaired, the airway becomes more vulnerable to collapse.

Ms Cain's myofunctional therapy programme addresses nasal breathing retraining for patients who habitually breathe through the mouth, tongue posture rehabilitation to establish correct resting tongue position against the palate, swallowing pattern correction, and progressive strengthening exercises for the muscles that support the upper airway. For children with sleep-disordered breathing, myofunctional therapy is particularly important as an early intervention that can reduce airway vulnerability during the critical years of craniofacial development.

Dr Rachel Smith — osteopath

Dr Smith provides osteopathic care within the Smile Solutions clinical team. For sleep apnoea patients, the relationship between craniofacial structure, cervical spine alignment, and airway dimensions is clinically significant. Osteopathic manual therapy can address musculoskeletal patterns that contribute to airway restriction, and Dr Smith works alongside our dental team as part of the integrated treatment framework.

Ms Sophie Oostermeyer — oral health therapist and Fotona laser therapist

Ms Oostermeyer delivers Fotona laser therapy within the Smile Solutions clinical team. For sleep apnoea and snoring, Fotona laser treatment targets the soft tissue structures of the soft palate and oropharynx, reducing soft tissue volume, improving tissue tone, and reducing the likelihood of airway collapse during sleep. This is a non-invasive, no-incision treatment delivered in the dental chair, with no anaesthesia required and no downtime. For patients who snore but don't have clinically significant OSA, laser therapy may be a primary treatment option. For OSA patients, it may be offered as one component of a broader personalised treatment plan.

Dr Kia Pajouhesh — principal dentist

Dr Pajouhesh leads the diagnostic and treatment planning process for complex orofacial cases including sleep apnoea, overseeing the integration of our multidisciplinary team and ensuring that your treatment plan reflects a complete and thorough clinical picture.

Treatment options for sleep apnoea

Mandibular advancement splints (MAS)

A mandibular advancement splint is a custom-made oral appliance worn during sleep that holds your lower jaw in a slightly forward position. This forward repositioning opens the airway by advancing the tongue base and the soft tissue structures of the posterior throat, preventing the collapse that generates snoring and causes obstructive apnoea events.

At Smile Solutions, mandibular advancement splints are fabricated in the Smile Lab, our in-house dental laboratory. Digital impressions are taken for a precise, comfortable fit, and your splint is designed and fabricated by experienced in-house technicians. The titration process, where the degree of jaw advancement is gradually increased over several appointments to find the optimal therapeutic position, is managed by Dr Hremias in collaboration with Dr McMahon. Objective validation of your treatment response using sleep study data after titration is part of our standard clinical protocol.

Mandibular advancement splints are supported by strong scientific evidence as a treatment for mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnoea. If you've tried CPAP and found it intolerable, a well-fitted and properly titrated mandibular advancement splint is frequently an effective and far more comfortable alternative.

Fotona laser therapy

The Fotona LightWalker laser system is used at Smile Solutions for the treatment of snoring and as a component of sleep apnoea management. Delivered by Ms Oostermeyer, laser treatment works by gently heating and tightening the mucosal tissue of the soft palate and uvula, reducing the excess soft tissue that vibrates during breathing (causing snoring) and reducing the likelihood of complete airway collapse during sleep.

This treatment is non-invasive, performed in the dental chair, requires no anaesthesia, and involves no recovery period. A course of treatment typically involves multiple sessions. It's well-suited to patients with primary snoring and for patients with mild OSA where the soft tissue of the soft palate is a primary contributor to airway obstruction.

Airway CBCT imaging

Three-dimensional CBCT imaging of the airway, available through Collins Street Imaging on Level 9 of the Manchester Unity Building, allows our clinical team to visualise your airway dimensions and identify specific anatomical sites of restriction or narrowing. This imaging is particularly useful for treatment planning where the site and severity of airway obstruction is uncertain, and for patients where multiple contributing factors — dental, skeletal, nasal, or pharyngeal — need to be fully understood before treatment decisions are finalised.

Sleep hygiene education

For many patients, lifestyle and behavioural factors contribute meaningfully to sleep apnoea severity. Our team provides guidance on sleep hygiene practices, body position during sleep, the effects of alcohol and sedative medication on airway muscle tone, weight management considerations, and other modifiable factors that can complement your clinical treatment plan.

Myofunctional therapy

As described above, Ms Cain's myofunctional therapy programme strengthens the airway-supporting musculature and retrains breathing patterns. For suitable patients, this can reduce apnoea severity as a standalone intervention or as a valuable complement to other treatments.

Osteopathic care

Dr Smith's osteopathic treatment addresses musculoskeletal contributions to airway restriction and supports the broader integrated treatment framework.

Collaborative care with medical practitioners

Our team works closely with your existing medical practitioners. If you've been referred by a GP, ENT specialist, or sleep physician, we'll communicate directly with your referring practitioner and provide detailed clinical reports on your treatment outcomes. For patients with complex medical histories or on medications that affect sleep, this coordination ensures that dental treatment decisions are made with full awareness of your broader medical context.

The Australasian Sleep Association and clinical standards

The dentists at Smile Solutions providing sleep apnoea treatment hold certification through the Australasian Sleep Association. This professional certification reflects specific training in the diagnosis and dental management of sleep-disordered breathing, ensuring that mandibular advancement splint therapy and related dental sleep medicine is practised at a standard consistent with current evidence and clinical guidelines.

Making an appointment

If you suspect you may have sleep apnoea, or if you've already received a diagnosis and you're looking for an experienced team to help you manage it effectively, we'd welcome you to Smile Solutions for a complimentary consultation.

Call us on 13 13 96 or visit smilesolutions.com.au. You'll find us at the Manchester Unity Building, 220 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD. No referral is required, though medical referral letters are always welcomed. Payment plans are available through Payright, Humm, and MyDentaPlan.

A reference video from our team on sleep apnoea management for medical practitioners is available at youtube.com/watch?v=DU8AKBgopuI.

With over 937 Google reviews and a 4.9-star rating, Smile Solutions is one of Melbourne's most trusted dental practices — and we're here to help you sleep better, breathe better, and feel better every day.