Oral appliance for grinding teeth and apnea

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:55 am

Okay, I've read all the skeptics. I was prepared when I went to the dentist yesterday.

Didn't get a chance. Princess Nancy (Seriously that's what she likes to be called) my Hygienist and I were talking about the fact that my teeth are sharp and have started chipping at the edges. She says she can PROVE I'm grinding my teeth. She and the dentist had me align my bite in a particular way, and showed how the teeth are ground into alignment on their cutting edges at a weird angle. Typical of night grinding.

So, I said, fine, I want a guard, for GRINDING!!! But he wouldn't let up. Swore several of his patients have gotten off CPAP. I tried to tell him that wasn't my goal, and I didn't think that was going to happen, I just wanted to save my teeth, and I could afford $2600, and..... Got nowhere.

The good news? His personally made appliance only costs $600. And maybe my dental insurance will cover it FOR GRINDING. I told them NOT to mention apnea or snoring or I KNEW it would get shut down. So, we shall see.

I know a couple people here have found some appliances that work for them, and several have paid through the nose for something that didn't work worth squat. So, I'm reopening the topic. Feel free to share your experiences.

BTW, while they are doing research with my insurance, I thought I might try that boil and bite mouth guard off Ebay. I don't have the link right now. Would someone repost it for anyone reading this that might be interested?

I thought I'd give that a try just to see if I could stand sleeping with a night guard at all. If it CURES me, well, $15 is better than $600, eh?

LOL,
B.

JeffH · Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:40 am

Boil and bite mouth guards at Wal-mart are $1.95 in the sporting goods dept.

BTW, my GF is a dental hygienist (we won't get into the princess part) and I've seen her recommend these to people that don't have insurance and grind their teeth.

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:44 am

JeffH, what's the thing called? Do I just wander around and say I need a sport mouth guard? What sport? No one will believe I play football.

LOL,
B.

JeffH · Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:48 am

Lots of sports wear them...

Just ask for a mouth guard in the sporting goods dept. They are clear and fit the upper teeth only. Should be in a bubble package.

I have all the faith in the world that you will come up with a hell of a story when you ask the "associate" where the mouth guards are.

JeffH...LOL

tangents · Post by **tangents** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:59 am

Babs,

Here's the direct link to the site, rather than eBay. I love mine. I've just received my second one so that I have a back up.

Cheers,
Cathy

http://www.mydentalhygiene.com/Mouthguard.htm

andyomega · Post by **andyomega** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:12 pm

save yourself some money
http://www.sleeppro.com/
mine cost 2300 plus consultation and x-ray.
insurance paid for nothing and the little cheap junky plastic thing i got ... well its not worth 2300 dollars.

JeffH · Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:14 pm

Hey Babette,
This is the Jeff H's GF. Another "Princess Hygienist" He read me your e-mail about the night guard. I can imagine how that went. As he said I have recommended along with my dentist, that people try a mouthpiece from Wallmart first before investing money in a lab made one. The reason is some people can't tolerate things in their mouths and they throw them out in their sleep. This doesn't do a lot of good towards stopping grinding.
I didn't read all you guys e-mails but if you get on line and look for night guards, it is wise to be careful about wearing them. Here is what I did to myself. I have worn one for 30 years and had many different ones. Once I made one for myself from a machine we had at the office for that purpose. A year later I went to my boss and complained my teeth weren't fitting together properly. Long story short, I ended up at a specialist who said I had the wrong night guard for me and it had pushed my lower teeth down so they weren't hitting my top ones. $1000 later, I got the correct guard and my teeth came back up after a little adjustment. So be careful what you wear. Let the dentist recommend. That's not to say you can't try a boil and bite one for a few weeks.
Let us know how this goes, I can't sleep without mine now.
Patty

JeffH · Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:51 pm

tangents wrote:Babs,

Here's the direct link to the site, rather than eBay. I love mine. I've just received my second one so that I have a back up.

Cheers,
Cathy

http://www.mydentalhygiene.com/Mouthguard.htm

Those look identical to the $1.95 Wal-mart sport mouthguards.

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:07 pm

JeffH wrote:Hey Babette,
This is the Jeff H's GF. Another "Princess Hygienist" He read me your e-mail about the night guard. I can imagine how that went. As he said I have recommended along with my dentist, that people try a mouthpiece from Wallmart first before investing money in a lab made one. The reason is some people can't tolerate things in their mouths and they throw them out in their sleep. This doesn't do a lot of good towards stopping grinding.
I didn't read all you guys e-mails but if you get on line and look for night guards, it is wise to be careful about wearing them. Here is what I did to myself. I have worn one for 30 years and had many different ones. Once I made one for myself from a machine we had at the office for that purpose. A year later I went to my boss and complained my teeth weren't fitting together properly. Long story short, I ended up at a specialist who said I had the wrong night guard for me and it had pushed my lower teeth down so they weren't hitting my top ones. $1000 later, I got the correct guard and my teeth came back up after a little adjustment. So be careful what you wear. Let the dentist recommend. That's not to say you can't try a boil and bite one for a few weeks.
Let us know how this goes, I can't sleep without mine now.
Patty

Dearest Princess Patty,

YOU ROCK!

Very much along the lines of what I was thinking. I want to see if I can tolerate ANYTHING first, then let the dentist design something specific for me.

MANY THANKS!!!!
B.

PS - Is it okay if I adore you BF from afar and never see him?

JeffH · Post by **JeffH** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:27 pm

Thanks Babette, she got a kick out of your reply.

JeffH

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:15 pm

I use a http://www.snorban.com. It is as good as the one I once paid $350 or so at the dentist.
GeneS

socknitster · Post by **socknitster** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:27 pm

Babette,

I tried the ebay boil and bite and I wasn't happy as I wasn't able to get it refined enough to keep my mouth closed--since my idea was to "seal" my mouth so I don't have to tape, this wasn't gonna work for ME.

I looked into the snoreban but was turned off by some of the weird stuff on the website and wasn't sure i wanted to order it.

EVentually I found this one: http://www.snoremate.com/index.html

I ordered it two weeks ago but it hasn't come yet. If it doens't come soon they will be getting lots of bad press from me. It was mentioned by a satisfied customer in an old post here, so I decided to try it while my TAP is being made. My TAP is due in mid-Aug.

My TAP is costing me about $850-900 and it was recently FDA approved for even severe sleep apnea. I'm not getting my hopes up too much, but figure it is worth a try!

Here is a link to all the major kinds of oral appliances used for apnea:

http://quietsleep.com/oralappliancether ... escrip.cfm

jen

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:38 am

In a hospital associated sleep lab that I used to work in we did a study for the ENT department testing the effectiveness of the TAP oral appliance in treating patients with mild/moderate sleep apnea. While it diminished the AHI in 90% of the patients, it only completely fixed 25%, and out of that 25% none were over weight individuals. The more I think about this study, the more I think about the study Split_city has done, there may be more to it than your tongue falling back and closing your airway if you are an over weight individual.

I know you weren't looking for a cure/alternative to CPAP with the mouth guard Babete, however I thought it would be good to mention incase others were thinking about paying out of pocket. If you do decide to get a TAP device, I would definitely go back for another sleep study to findout if it is effective or not in controlling your sleep apnea.

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:57 am

My daughter says you should see your Dentist and have a custom made mouthpiece for some ridiculous price (and no I doubt your insurance will pay for it).

But then again, she is a Dentist, so what the hell does she know anyway, I'd just go down to the drug store and buy one of those boil-n-bites for under $20 bucks, put a pot of water on the stove.

Just make sure it doesn't put any pressure on your gums, if it does take a dremel to it

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:20 am

Snoredog, thanks for the Dremel tip! I wouldn't have thought of that, and would just have chucked it if it hurt my gums. Good idea.

I bought the $7.99 boil and bite from Walmart in the Adult size, that fits both upper and lower teeth. The $1.99 just fits upper teeth and that seemed stupid, since the Dentist-made one will fit both, and this is supposed to be a test-drive for me to decide if I want the Dentist device.

BTW - is TAP a universal term, or a specific brand name? The Dentist and Hygienist didn't recognize that term.

Jen, where are you getting your TAP from?

So, I fiddled with it, but got busy and didn't boil it. Tonight's the night!!! Does seem a trifle large, but until I boil it, it's hard to tell just what needs tweaking.

Thanks all for your advice!!! I do need something to save my teeth. They are chipping off at a rapid and disturbing rate. I could care less if it cures my apnea, but will take the bonus if it results in that.

Cheers,
B.

Mask

Additional Comments: Equipment isn't correct, S9 ASV w/H5i