Aarnoud Hoekema was born on July the 16^th, 1977 in Groningen, The Netherlands. In 1996 he started his dental education at the dental faculty of the University of Groningen. After receiving his dental degree in June 2001 (cum laude), he started as a registrar in training to become a clinical researcher at the Groningen University Medical Center. The first three years of this training he combined his work as a dentist at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery & Maxillofacial Prosthetics with a PhD-project on the therapeutic outcomes of oral-appliance versus continuous positive airway pressure therapy. On March the 14^th 2007 Aarnoud Hoekema completed his PhD-degree with a dissertation titled “Oral-Appliance Therapy in Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome: a Clinical Study on Therapeutic Outcomes”.
In 2004 Aarnoud Hoekema started his oral and maxillofacial residency at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Groningen University Medical Center. In 2010 he finished his medical degree at the Groningen University Medical Center. In 2011 he was registered as oral & maxillofacial surgeon. Presently he works as Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon in the Tjongerschans Hospital in Heerenveen. His oral & maxillofacial practice is focused on orthognathic surgery and sleep apnea treatment. He combines this function with postdoctoral research in sleep apnea management at the University Medical Center Groningen. In 2016 he was appointed as associate professor at the Academisch Centrum Tandheelkunde Amsterdam (ACTA). Moreover he is also active as president and founding member of the Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine in The Netherlands. He has published several articles on oral-appliance therapy for obstructive sleep apnea and presented his scientific work at numerous national and international meetings on this topic.