What Happens at an Oral Appliance Consultation in Glen Allen?

If snoring or constant tiredness has you thinking about an oral appliance, your first step is a consultation. It's an unhurried visit: a conversation about your sleep, a few quick images, and time for every question you bring. This guide walks you through what happens at an oral appliance consultation at A-Z Sleep & Airway Center in Glen Allen, VA, from the questionnaire we send ahead of time to the retest that confirms your appliance is working.

What happens at an oral appliance consultation?

At your consultation, we talk through your symptoms and sleep history, take a digital scan of your mouth and a 3D image of your airway, and Dr. Ashlee Goodman-Tabari does a head and neck exam. She reviews everything with you on screen, so you can see what she's seeing.

The exam looks at the parts of your mouth and throat that shape your airway. Jaw shape, tongue position, a narrow arch, mouth breathing and sleep position can all leave less room for air to move while you sleep.

We also show you what treatment looks like. Dr. Goodman-Tabari keeps appliance models in the office, so you can see how a custom device fits before you make any decisions.

We take time to walk you through what's happening while you sleep, and we answer every question you have along the way.

How do I prepare for my first sleep visit?

Preparing takes only a few minutes. Before your first visit, we send you a short sleep questionnaire so we understand what you're dealing with. If you'd like a head start, our free online sleep apnea screening asks a few yes-or-no questions about your sleep and health, and our team reaches out to talk through your answers.

If someone shares your room, invite them along. Partners often notice snoring first, and they're always welcome to join the visit.

Sleep care is a medical service, so it runs through your medical insurance rather than your dental plan. We accept all medical insurance, including Cigna, Tricare, UnitedHealthcare and Medicare, and we verify your benefits and explain any out-of-pocket cost before you test.

What happens after the consultation?

The next step is usually a home sleep test, because we fit an appliance only after a sleep study. When a test makes sense, we can often get you set up in a matter of days.

Testing matters because loud snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, as Mayo Clinic's overview of obstructive sleep apnea explains.

The test happens in your own bed. You wear a small device about the size of a watch, with a soft clip for your finger and a small sensor on your chest, and your phone walks you through setup. Then you go to sleep the way you normally would.

Your results come back to us the next day and are read by a sleep physician, who makes the diagnosis and goes over your results with you in a telemedicine visit. In some cases, a home test is how doctors diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, according to Mayo Clinic's guide to sleep apnea diagnosis. That diagnosis tells us whether an oral appliance is a good fit for you.

How is a custom oral appliance made and fitted?

If an oral appliance is right for you, we design it from a quick digital scan of your mouth, and Dr. Goodman-Tabari chooses a comfortable starting position for your jaw. Your appliance is custom made in a lab and usually comes back in about three weeks.

The appliance holds your lower jaw slightly forward so your airway stays open while you sleep. Mayo Clinic's guide to snoring treatment describes oral appliances the same way, as mouthpieces that advance the position of your jaw to keep your air passage open.

From there, our custom oral appliance therapy follows three steps:

1. Fitting. Dr. Goodman-Tabari and our team fit your appliance here, where every step from the first scan to the final check happens.
2. Fine-tuning. We adjust the appliance gradually over follow-up visits, because small changes in jaw position make a real difference to how open your airway stays.
3. Retesting. A follow-up home sleep test confirms your breathing and oxygen have improved with the appliance in place, and we adjust your device based on real results.

Who will I meet at my consultation?

You'll meet Dr. Ashlee Goodman-Tabari, who founded A-Z Sleep & Airway Center as a sleep-only practice. She completed a mini-residency through Nierman Practice Management focused on sleep disorders and oral appliance therapy, and she holds the Qualified Dentist designation from the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.

Her reasons for this work are personal. Dr. Goodman-Tabari founded the practice after successfully treating sleep-related breathing disorders in her own children, husband and mother, and she treats her own sleep-disordered breathing with an oral appliance. She knows what the first weeks feel like, and that shapes how patiently she works through the fit with you.

Her focus is care you'll keep up with every night: "The goal is to have the treatment that you're going to use on a daily basis. That's what's most important."

We also keep your primary care doctor in the loop, so your diagnosis, treatment and follow-up stay connected and you never have to carry information between offices yourself.

In Dr. Goodman-Tabari's words, "It's better to know than not to know." If snoring or tiredness has you wondering about your sleep, call our Glen Allen dental office at (804) 767-2507 or schedule a sleep consultation. We're open Tuesday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, inside the Shops at Cross Ridge at 10220 Staples Mill Rd.

Published by A-Z Sleep & Airway Center.