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When I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea I asked my doc about alternatives to CPAP because I didn't think I'd be able to sleep with that thing on my face. He
by UncleOxidant 3y ago
When I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea I asked my doc about alternatives to CPAP because I didn't think I'd be able to sleep with that thing on my face. He sent me to a dentist who specialized in making those oral appliances for Oral Appliance Therapy. I did the adjustments for a couple of months (you move a screw just a bit further every few days which pulls your lower jaw forward in the device). After a couple of months he had me do another sleep test - it was actually worse than it was before without the device. Soon after I got a CPAP and after a 2 or 3 week adjustment period I was sleeping just fine with it.
- Klonoar 3y agoI’ve done the oral appliance route and it fixed it for me, so it might be a YMMV thing. I really recommend everyone get tested for it tho, good sleep is the biggest game changer.
- UncleOxidant 3y agoThis was about 15 years ago and I got the distinct impression that the oral device they gave me was still pretty experimental. I remember making a few suggestions to the dentist for ways it might work better and he thanked me for my feedback. Maybe they're better now?