[T-4.5Yrs] Evolution and Dental Appliance

Early 2005, Dr. Mark Abramson came to lecture at one of the AWAKE meetings at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, CA. He had an interesting theory on the origins of sleep apnea and attributed to evolution.

 He said that as human beings evolved from a 4-legged animal to a 2-legged gait, the curve at our neck has contributed to narrow airway. First time, I ever heard of such a theory, seems plausible. He believes that in four legged animals like cats and dogs, there is no sleep apnea because the spine is held straight during sleep. Then “Home Erectus” came along and tried to walk on two legs, developing a curved spine alongst the way. This creates a “choke point” weakness in our neck for us two legged animals. Clearly we got some more evolving to do!


Dr. Mark Abramsom is the inventor of the OASYS system which is a Oral/Nasal Airway System. It advances the jaw and also has a couple of extenders which sit inside the mouth and attempt to spread the cheeks and nose out. I had to go through a fair amount of adjustment in the first couple of months because it was too tight or because it was not advancing the jaw enough. Mark is a great guy, charged about $2000 initially and made all the adjustments for free later. 

Tried it for over 6 months, tried a combination of dental appliance and CPAP for a while too. It was rather uncomfortable and I had compliance issues. I used to wear it for about 6 hours a night. About 8 months - 1 year into it, I gave up on it. I didn't see a big improvement anyway.