For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared oral devices that treat severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These devices offer an alternative to more common sleep apnea treatments, like continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy and surgery.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the sleep apnea detection feature that's launching on the Apple Watch Series 10, Series 9, and Ultra 2. Apple received the green light on Sept. 13, with the FDA categorizing it as an "over-the-counter device to assess risk of sleep apnea."

The FDA said that since April 2021 it has received more than 116,000 medical device reports of foam breaking down in Philips CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines and BiPAP sleep therapy devices. That includes 561 reports of death, the agency said Wednesday.

The FDA has approved Apple’s sleep apnea detection feature. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes a person’s breathing to repeatedly stop and start throughout the night. The feature is designed for the Apple Watch, and it works by analyzing a new metric that the company calls “breathing disturbances.”