Phototherapy for Non-responders to Oral Appliance Therapy for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

May 29, 2026 updated by: University of Alberta

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a medical condition where a person has great difficulty with breathing, or stops breathing all together, while asleep. This is a medical condition for which one of the current standard treatments is the use of a custom made dental appliance to help hold the person's airway open while asleep so that the person does not suffocate while sleeping. However, while the majority of OSA patients are able to tolerate the use of oral appliance therapy (OAT) for OSA, some patients are incomplete responders to OAT. These patients, despite having improvement, may still have a disease index above the diagnostic threshold for OSA.

Phototherapy (laser therapy) has been used as a method to stiffen the soft palate and parts of the tongue to prevent their collapse. This is a type of cold laser therapy that does not cut/ablate tissue (similar to healing laser therapies). This has been shown to help with both snoring and can also help with OSA, as soft palate and tongue collapse are common areas for where OSA occurs inside the airway. A recent pilot study has shown that phototherapy on its own may be able to treat selected patients with mild, moderate, or severe OSA. To our knowledge, there are no contraindications to combining phototherapy and dental sleep appliance therapy.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to determine whether phototherapy (nightlase/quiet night laser protocol) can change oral appliance therapy (OAT) incomplete responders into complete responders for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Patients who are incomplete responders to OAT will become complete responders (as defined as a reduction of 50% and below 10) with the adjunctive use of phototherapy for OSA. Per the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, first line treatment for OSA is CPAP. Patients who are unable to tolerate CPAP or otherwise decline CPAP may be treated through OAT. However, which compliance with OAT is significantly greater than CPAP, overall efficacy of OAT is not as high as CPAP. Further treatment options for patients with are incomplete responders to OAT are limited (other options include surgical interventions such as bariatric surgery and/or jaw surgery). The use of phototherapy for OAT incomplete responders offers the possibility of changing the response pattern for these patients into complete response which may provide more complete treatment rather than partial management for their OSA. Data to be collected for this study will be standard data collected for dental sleep appliance therapy. This includes mandibular position (in digital impression form and as OJ and OB recordings), range of motion, side effects/adverse reactions, titrations (% and number), total time required for treatment, medical history, CBCT imaging, biographical data, phototherapy exposure settings, etc.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

528

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Canada
      • Edmonton, Canada
        • Recruiting
        • University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • diagnosed with OSA
  • incomplete treatment with OAT/MAD

Exclusion Criteria:

  • not diagnosed with OSA
  • using CPAP

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Experimental: NL C3
Device: Phototherapy
Non-surgical laser therapy (phototherapy)
Experimental: QN
Device: Phototherapy
Non-surgical laser therapy (phototherapy)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
OSA disease index
Time Frame: 4 months
4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Alberta

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 5, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 28, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

May 7, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 1, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 29, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00125341

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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