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+--- Thread: Success w/ dental appliances? (/Thread-Success-w-dental-appliances)
Success w/ dental appliances? - JaneAM - 07-27-2018
Hi - Just wondering if anyone has experience (good or bad) with using a sleep apnea dental appliance. I've been using my APAP for 2 years now with good results. However, because I travel a lot, I thought I would invest in a dental appliance to use while I'm on the road. So far I'm not impressed. It's taken months for the dentist (supposedly a specialist in making these ) to get it to fit right into my mouth. When I finally used it, after two nights it had rubbed a good size sore into the inside of my cheek. Any one want to share their wisdom?
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - Walla Walla - 07-27-2018
I don't think I'd ever use one. But from reading here it has worked for a few who had only mild sleep apnea. But most had since switched to machines.
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - ardenum - 07-28-2018
I have 2 one is a tongue retention device, the other is your regular apnea mouthpiece from resmed. For the resmeds narval they scanned the insides of my mouth into a 3d model. I had it for 2 years now and never got had sores. Though I tend to intechange the two mouthpieces depending on whether im sleeping with a full face mask and when im on nasal. Both deviced work great together with my bipap. They enchanced my bibap therapy.
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - Sleep2Snore - 07-28-2018
Unless you are a MILD Apnea patient I wouldn't bother wasting your money.
I have know a few that have tried them with limited success or a total fail.
However, some MILD patients say they have had some success with them.
I don't think I could put up with the pain when starting out with them though.
They say you do get used to it, but pain in the jaw is not easy to put up with.
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - JimmyMc - 07-29-2018
When I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea, my doctor (in Australia) first recommended trying an oral appliance. As I was also engaged in some serious weight loss at the time, there was some thought that the apnea would subside along with my neck size.
The appliance worked fine. I rarely had problems with it an only occasionally I found I had ejected it during the night (usually by a tap from my unhappy-with-the-snoring wife).
I subsequently tried a CPAP machine, and I still use it. I also have one of the small machines I take with me when I'm traveling - I've just recently used it on a two week cruise in the Baltics.
I *DO* still carry an oral device with me. I've found that I can sleep very well on an airplane (sitting up in coach) using it, although on a long flight I'll break out the portable - even in coach, now that electric is available at the seat.
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - CB91710 - 07-29-2018
Mine had no impact on my apnea (and my case is mild, my sleep doc had to run a 3-night test to get a result that allowed them to prescribe the machine).
In addition to having no impact, it aggravated a minor TMJ condition into a serious problem... I could not properly close my jaw to chew for several hours after waking.
After a few weeks, I would wake to find that I had either spit it out, or it had fallen out of position and lodged uncomfortably in my mouth.
I would not recommend a dental appliance to anyone under any condition.
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - JaneAM - 10-27-2018
Hi Friends - I ended up throwing out the dental appliance. After 7 trips back to the dentist (who said he is a specialist in these devices) to keep trying to fit it, I just gave up. It was very uncomfortable, felt like it was going to pull my jaw out of alignment, and possibly break out some teeth. That was a giant waste of time and $3,000. My only lesson out of this experience is my new found appreciation for my CPAP. It works; I'm used to it; I've learned to travel with it. It keeps my severe obstructive apnea diagnosis controlled - readings are almost always 2.5 AHI or less.
Live and learn....
RE: Success w/ dental appliances? - delta - 02-17-2021
(10-27-2018, 07:53 AM)JaneAM Wrote: Hi Friends - I ended up throwing out the dental appliance. After 7 trips back to the dentist (who said he is a specialist in these devices) to keep trying to fit it, I just gave up. It was very uncomfortable, felt like it was going to pull my jaw out of alignment, and possibly break out some teeth. That was a giant waste of time and $3,000. My only lesson out of this experience is my new found appreciation for my CPAP. It works; I'm used to it; I've learned to travel with it. It keeps my severe obstructive apnea diagnosis controlled - readings are almost always 2.5 AHI or less.
Live and learn....
That reminds me not to complain about Europe prices any more... $250 customized here..