Find Out How We Can Treat Your Sleep Apnoea and TMJ Related Issues

Obstructive sleep apnoea has several different drivers, and response to any oral appliance varies between individuals. What we can do is assess your sleep study, your severity, your anatomy and your treatment history, and give you an honest view on whether this approach is worth trying. That is exactly what the free consultation is for.

CPAP uses a bedside pump to deliver continuous positive pressure through a hose and mask, across the whole breathing cycle. PEEP Guard is worn in the mouth and uses your own exhaled breath to generate expiratory positive airway pressure, alongside mandibular advancement and an integrated air channel. They are different treatments that share the principle of positive airway pressure.

EPAP stands for expiratory positive airway pressure. The PEEP Shield valve at the front of the appliance restricts airflow as you breathe out. That resistance generates positive pressure inside your airway during exhalation — pressure that has to be created by a machine in CPAP therapy, but is created by your own breathing here.

Most conventional mandibular advancement devices rely on a single mechanism: moving the lower jaw forward. If that mechanism alone didn’t adequately control your sleep apnoea, PEEP Guard adds two more — an integrated air channel that lowers the resistance you breathe against, and oral EPAP. Published studies of these technologies have shown further reductions in events remaining after standard mandibular advancement.

Severe OSA has historically been difficult territory for oral appliances. In a prospective study of 36 patients with severe OSA, EPAP-enhanced oral appliance therapy reduced sleep breathing events from an average of 45.4 to 13.4 per hour, with 84% achieving at least a 50% reduction. That said, severity is one of the most important factors in your individual assessment, and it’s a conversation to have with a clinician rather than something to decide from a web page.

Yes — a diagnosis matters, and so does a reasonably recent one. If you have a sleep study, have it handy for your consultation. If you don’t, or yours is quite old, we’ll talk you through your options for getting one.

No. You can be treated entirely from home, anywhere in Australia — video consultation, a home impression kit posted to you with instructions and support from our team, then fitting and reviews by video.

If you can get to us, we have two clinics: Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast, and Tweed Heads. In person we take a digital intraoral scan instead of impressions — no putty — and your fitting and adjustments happen in the chair, which usually makes optimising the advancement quicker. The prices and the appliance are the same either way.

It’s a custom appliance made from a digital scan or impressions of your own teeth, so it fits your mouth rather than being a generic shape. Like any mandibular advancement therapy, some people experience jaw or bite awareness in the early weeks. Your dental circumstances — existing dental work, gum health, jaw joint history — are part of the clinical assessment, which is why an appliance like this should be prescribed rather than bought.

About three weeks end to end, from your first assessment to wearing the appliance — consultation, then your digital scan or impressions, then manufacture, then fitting.

After that, advancement is adjusted over the following weeks based on how you’re responding. Getting the appliance is the start of treatment, not the end of it.

Every PEEP Guard is custom made from a scan or impressions of your own teeth, and the therapy is built around your sleep study rather than sold off a shelf. Essential is $1,995 and Complete — which adds the monitoring and the 90-Day Results Guarantee — is $2,495. Through SmileRight that is about $13 and $16 a week over 36 months, interest-free, with a deposit payable with your first payment.

Those are our fees, not what you end up out of pocket. If you hold dental extras, your fund pays a benefit on item 984 and most of your annual limit is still available, out-of-pocket on Essential typically lands somewhere around $600 to $900. Item 984 is the one that varies most between funds, so it is the one worth asking about. Answer a few quick questions and we will show you your weekly cost, then check your fund with you at no charge.

Your $49 consultation with Dr Hart is credited in full toward treatment if you go ahead; if we advise that PEEP Guard is not right for you, the $49 covers the consultation and you leave with a written opinion.

It’s included with PEEP Guard Complete. We measure your oxygen desaturation index (ODI) across three consecutive valid nights of overnight oximetry before treatment, then again across three qualifying nights once your PEEP Guard has been fitted and optimised. The compliance monitor lets us verify those recordings correspond with nights the appliance was actually worn.

If your optimised treatment doesn’t achieve either a 50% or greater reduction in average ODI or an average ODI below 10 events per hour, you may qualify for a refund of your out-of-pocket cost for the device component of treatment, up to $1,495, and the appliance is returned to us. Where your fund has already paid a benefit toward the device, the refund is reduced by that benefit, so it never exceeds what you have actually paid.

The oximetry used here measures change in ODI with a consistent method before and after — it isn’t a substitute for a formal diagnostic sleep study. Eligibility and the full conditions are set out in the Results Guarantee Terms & Conditions.

Many patients with the right level of cover receive a rebate, and with good extras cover it can reach up to 70% of the total cost of treatment. It varies a great deal by insurer, policy, annual limit and item number, though, and some patients receive nothing at all. We give you the item numbers so you can check your own entitlement, and our clinical team will do that check with you at no charge before you commit.

Payment plans are provided by SmileRight over terms of up to 36 months with no interest, and a deposit payable with your first payment. Terms beyond 12 months are available at participating practices — we are one, which is why the 36-month figures on this page are open to you. Interest does apply if repayments are not made on time, and SmileRight may charge fees.

On our fees that is about $13 a week for Essential and $16 a week for Complete over 36 months. Your deposit, and any benefit your fund pays on the day, both reduce the amount financed and so reduce the weekly payment.

If you hold dental extras, there is a second option. Rather than financing the whole fee, book the free insurance check — we work out what your fund pays and what you are actually left out of pocket, and that gap can be spread interest-free over up to 12 months. We do not quote a weekly figure for it here, because the gap depends on your policy and your remaining limit, and we would rather tell you the real number than a likely one.

We also accept Afterpay, humm, PayPal and Square.

Applications are subject to SmileRight’s credit approval. Their terms, fees and eligibility criteria are set by them, not by us, and are set out in the offer you receive when you apply.

This is separate from the 90-Day Results Guarantee above. Your PEEP Guard carries a five-year manufacturer’s warranty covering fit and breakage. If the appliance doesn’t fit as it should, or it breaks in normal use within five years, it’s covered.

That’s unusually long for an oral appliance, and it’s worth knowing why we can offer it: the appliance is manufactured to your own scan or impressions rather than adapted from a stock size.

You simply need to book an appointment with our licensed sleep care specialist and then complete our Medical History & Privacy form and they will set up a telemedicine consultation with one of our licensed Doctors to review your previous test results and provide you with a prescription for oral appliance therapy.