Functional Treatment of Snoring Using Oral Shields in Conjunction with the Tongue Repositioning Manoevre

The tongue repositioning manoeuvre has been demonstrated to lead to a closed rest position of orofacial structures with increased contact of the velum with the tongue and a contact position of the tongue at the hard palate. Within the multifactorial etiology of snoring, the tongue repositioning manoeuvre was used as training method in conjunction with pressure indicating oral shields to reduce symptoms of snoring by stabilisation of the orofacial system. Bed partner ranking of 128 snorers treated consecutively showed a score before treatment of 8.9 on a 10 cm visual analogue scale. After treatment the score decrease to 4.2 (p<0.01). No significant BMI , age or gender specific influence of the outcome could be observed. The data give evidence, that dynamic stabilisation of the orofacial system with oral shields in conjunction with the tongue repositioning manoevre is a valuable instrument to reduce the snoring problem.