Obstructive Sleep Apnea

by the experts at Mayo Clinic. Our surgeons are skilled in segmenting and advancing (moving forward) the upper jaw, followed by the lower jaw, in order to open the airway and greatly improve sleep apnea.

If total joint reconstruction to replace the jaw joints is also required, Mayo Clinic has surgeons who specialize in all jaw surgeries and can perform both procedures at the same time.

MMA surgery is a successful treatment for obstructive sleep apnea because it addresses the airway at multiple levels. It is increasingly considered as the first surgical option for select individuals.

At Mayo Clinic, our goals for MMA surgery are to:

Cure your sleep apnea or significantly reduce the number of instances per hour. (Fewer than five instances of sleep apnea per hour is considered a cure.)
Avoid the need for ongoing CPAP therapy
Open the airway so you breathe better through the night.
Relieve pain and provide you with Mayo Clinic’s Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) package for an easier recovery.
Lower your risk of sleep apnea complications including cardiovascular diseases, neurocognitive issues, and accidents.

An experienced surgical team reduces the risk of complications and improves outcomes in sleep apnea, aesthetics, and function, such as the way in which the teeth fit together after surgery.

At Mayo Clinic, you will have a whole team of specialists working closely together who have experience managing this complex jaw surgery. This includes sleep medicine doctors, oral maxillofacial surgeons, radiologists, and nurses who collaborate to ensure you receive the right procedure for your unique needs.

Precision planning by our surgical team includes:

CT scans to plan the surgery virtually and precisely.
Laser scans of your teeth to create 3D models used to plan for teeth alignment.
Collaboration between our surgeons and biomedical engineers to plan maxillomandibular advancement down to fractions of a millimeter.
Custom, patient-specific 3D-printed bone plates and screws are constructed to accurately execute the operation and allow function after surgery.
Virtual surgical planning improves precision and efficiency, enabling shorter surgeries and less time spent under anesthesia.

Surgical Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder in which patients stop breathing while they sleep. And it is typically due to some sort of anatomical obstruction in the airway. Sleep apnea affects all of our systems, all the medical systems. This is one of those conditions that people need multi-specialties to treat it and treat it appropriately so you get the best result. Any kind of surgery that you need that would be necessary for a patient that crosses over into surgical sleep therapy is available here. Jaw surgery for sleep apnea is a process where a patient will have the upper jaw and then the lower jaw advanced, meaning we bring both jaws usually forward. They will have the upper jaw segmented from the skull base and brought forward. And then the lower jaw, we cut into a couple of pieces and bring that forward. The patient will recover in the hospital for a day or so and then discharge with their sleep apnea much improved because it opened up their airway as we brought the jaws forward. Every single patient, when we plan these, undergoes a 3D virtual surgical plan.

Individualized surgery is something that's very important right now. We are able to now plan these operations on the facial skeleton in the computer. And we can, it's almost like a flight simulator in a sense. It helps us also to be absolutely certain that we move the facial bones enough so that we move the soft tissues as well enough to open the airway adequately. But successful surgery for a patient is a surgery that goes well, renders them not needing CPAP therapy. They'll often talk about was almost like a curtain lifting in front of them. Or things just seem more vibrant, or they just felt like they were more engaged in their life again very quickly even after a short period of time after surgery.

Surgical Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea by Mayo Clinic Oral and Maxillofacial Experts

Accurate diagnosis.

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Expertise matters.

Surgical Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

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