Dr. Roger Roubal shares information about treating sleep apnea, provides tips on how to achieve a better night’s sleep
Since the 1980s, Dr. Roger Roubal has worked as a dentist and sleep apnea doctor in the Omaha area. After moving away from general dentistry about 10 years ago, Roubal exclusively treats sleep disorders as a board-certified sleep apnea dentist.
A unique alternative
Although many patients own CPAP machines, Roubal says he and his team at Advanced Dental Sleep Treatment Center help people find other sleep remedies.
“We treat problems with sleep apnea and snoring for those patients who do not tolerate the traditional CPAP machines,” he says. “We’re much more like a medical practice than a dental practice.”
Roubal says his team provides patients with estimated out-of-pocket costs before starting treatment. The clinic also accepts virtually every medical insurance.
“This is considered durable medical equipment,” Roubal says, “so if dentists are billing medical insurance, they have to be in-network providers.”
Better sleep treatment
When he receives new patients, Roubal says he typically orders a home sleep test to gauge people’s apnea and oxygenation levels while wearing sleep apnea appliances.
“We do a lot of screening just to make sure that people have a problem or don’t have a problem,” he says. “If they don’t have a problem that we can measure, we typically will send them off to a sleep specialist and see if there’s something else that’s not being uncovered.”
Roubal says treatment can eliminate the average patient’s snoring. By receiving treatment, people can avoid health problems caused by sleep apnea, such as cardiovascular issues, depression, high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia.
“Research is really clear that the less sleep you get, the more health risks that you’re taking on yourself,” Roubal says.
Build healthy habits
Roubal says adults should sleep between 7 and 9 hours. To achieve a good night’s sleep, people should stop using electronics about an hour before bedtime, avoid caffeine and sleep in a dark, quiet and cool room.
Among other benefits, Roubal says proper sleep hygiene can improve people’s judgment and concentration. “Sleep is just so important for what we do,” he says. “We can’t live without adequate sleep.
Dr. Roubal earned both his undergraduate degree and his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from Creighton University. Following graduation in 1974, he and his wife returned to the area where they grew up, and became the practitioner of the local dental office in Dodge, NE. From the time of being a young boy, Dr. Roubal was very eager to learn, and that never changed. Early in his career, he became aware of and intrigued by the notion of dentistry’s impact on the whole body. In 1988, he took his first sleep dentistry course, and began treating sleep apnea soon thereafter. In 2001, Dr. Roubal and his family moved to Omaha and in the coming years, he
earned a Diplomate in both TMJ Disorders and Sleep Dentistry. In 2012, he limited his practice to snoring and sleep apnea treatment, establishing Advanced Dental Sleep Treatment Center. He became a Medical and DME provider so that his patients could utilize their medical insurance benefits at his practice and in 2020 expanded its offerings to include CPAP and diagnosis guidance, in an effort to become Omaha’s first and only one-stop shop for sleep apnea treatment. Advanced Dental Sleep Treatment Center is 1 of just 13 accredited dental sleep facilities in the entire country and in 2021 was named #1 in Sleep Apnea Treatment by the Omaha’s Choice Awards. Dr. Roubal enjoys educating both patients and providers about sleep apnea, and takes great satisfaction in the health improvements he sees in his patients.
