dental anti-snoring devices

I snored. Everyone complained. I asked my primary care physician, who knew nothing, but who referred me for a sleep study at a local hospital. I slept hooked up under the supervision of an RN on two separate nights. The first resulted in a diagnosis of mild sleep apnea. The second confirmed that a CPAP machine is helpful.

It was expensive. The machine is cumbersome, and bothers my wife as much as me. At my dentist's office, I noticed an ad for a dental anti-snoring device ("Silent Nite") that claimed to prevent collapse of the airway by holding the lower jaw forward. I bought one, and it greatly reduces snoring at a much lower cost, and is much easier to use and clean than a CPAP machine.

I also did a little research on surgery, and concluded that the causes of the obstructed airway are complicated and vary with the individual. Testing and surgery are expensive, time-consuming, and dependent on trial and error for ultimate success.

It seems to me that the true test is whether or not you snore... a question that doesn't require expertise to answer. If a dental device stops the snoring, doesn't that mean that the airway is open, and that the problem is completely solved? It seems to me that the sleep study merely confirms the obvious... that oxygen deprivation is bad for you. What am I missing? I've never received an explanation, and I'm going to continue to use my "Silent Nite" as a substitute for a CPAP until I can figure out why my thinking is wrong. Any opinions?

Hi - I almost deleted your note as Spam, but in case you're not trying to sell the device to us, I also want to make something clear - snoring is NOT the major criteria of apnea. Many, many apnea patients never snore, and lots of snorers don't have apnea. The best test, while not comprehensive for related respiratory and neurological problems that may accompany apnea, or may be not classified as apnea but need addressing under other names is an oximeter - properly set up and used overnight - and only by finding out if your oxygen level goes below a certain line (88-90) at any time once asleep, and how low it goes and for how long, can you be sure you don't have sleep apnea, whether or not you may have other related conditions.

I hope you're not just pushing that thing... people here are well educated about apnea and know one device and/or surgery, and/or system of whatever type from another, and your unfortunately not well informed note won't change that or get them to think just an antisnoring device will 'cure' apnea.

And we don't find our machines cumbersome (and I hate that your note may discourage some newbies who NEED Cpap from using it), nor do we give up at the first sign of discomfort - we work with the equipment, find the best set-up for ourselves and once that happens, we wouldn't want to sleep any other way.

Don't we love it when one can't except the "Gold Standard Sleep Apnea Treatment", and instead choose the "Fools Gold Standard". In this case being willing to chose the two most common, any made up treatment work well, as long as they aren't confirmed by a sleep lab, and then over the years to see thst problems don't creep back.

All that matters is your health, you have to live with the results. With the right XPAP, you can have the results of a sleep test nightly. Jim

regab brooks wrote:I snored. Everyone complained. I asked my primary care physician, who knew nothing, but who referred me for a sleep study at a local hospital. I slept hooked up under the supervision of an RN on two separate nights. The first resulted in a diagnosis of mild sleep apnea. The second confirmed that a CPAP machine is helpful.

It was expensive. The machine is cumbersome, and bothers my wife as much as me. At my dentist's office, I noticed an ad for a dental anti-snoring device ("Silent Nite") that claimed to prevent collapse of the airway by holding the lower jaw forward. I bought one, and it greatly reduces snoring at a much lower cost, and is much easier to use and clean than a CPAP machine.

I also did a little research on surgery, and concluded that the causes of the obstructed airway are complicated and vary with the individual. Testing and surgery are expensive, time-consuming, and dependent on trial and error for ultimate success.

It seems to me that the true test is whether or not you snore... a question that doesn't require expertise to answer. If a dental device stops the snoring, doesn't that mean that the airway is open, and that the problem is completely solved? It seems to me that the sleep study merely confirms the obvious... that oxygen deprivation is bad for you. What am I missing? I've never received an explanation, and I'm going to continue to use my "Silent Nite" as a substitute for a CPAP until I can figure out why my thinking is wrong. Any opinions?

I would suggest that you take a few minutes to view this video:
http://www.resmed.com/us/multimedia/und ... 40x380.swf
This video helped put OSA in perspective for me and I hope it helps you!

Unless you are certain that dental guard is holding your air way open ALL the time; then I wouldn't give up the cpap machine.
If you have a data capable machine you might try using both for a few days and see what the results are.
The only way to know for sure is another sleep study. To me it is like playing roullete how lucky do you feel?

Good Luck!

I like that one - "fools gold" lol! Yep! everyone thinks there is something else out there to use instead of hooking up to a machine. Don't they think if there was something better we would all be already using it???

I have a Silent Nite that I had made for taking on plane trips to Europe where I was unable to use the CPAP. I have not been taking that many trips lately, so haven't used it. I now use a TapPap mask, which has the upper part of the Silent Nite covered, so I can't use the Silent Nite now. At best, oral appliances only reduce the AHI by about 50%, so for me it would not stop the apneas occurring. The only way to tell if a device is effective is to have a sleep study while using it and nothing else. You might be one of the lucky ones, but also keep in mind that apnea tends to get worse as we age, so just because it works now doesn't mean that it will in 5 years time. Also, with all due respect to your partner, no one can monitor you ALL night and tell you how many times you stopped breathing each hour. The oximeter is at best a rough approximation - not everyone with apnea desaturates, and the level of desaturation does not, as far as I am aware, correlate with the severity of the apnea.

I am not prepared to accept the increased risk of stroke caused by apnea that is not properly treated, so I use the CPAP every night. You need to make your own decision, but make sure your loved ones are able to read all the information as well, and be part of the decision-making process.

I went to the dentist today, something I had not done since starting CPAP several years ago (shame shame shame). I had a question about dry mouth and mentioned my CPAP. The doctor asked if I tolerated the machine well. I said yes, and he said that was a good thing. He had several things he could offer patients with sleep apnea, but he would never recommend them to someone who tolerated CPAP treatment well. That is the most reliable treatment, he said.

It's a gismo that you put in your mouth which pushes your jaw forward and keep the airway open. My dentist who has sleep apnea doesn't like it as he said it hurt in the morning and feels like it can cause TMJ issues.

I went to a dental guy who had some sort of board certification for making the OSA dental devices. I went to him for a consultation for having one made. The guy did a very good job and diagnosed me with infected tonsils (tonsillitis) which I immediately acted upon and had surgically removed (tonsillectomy) last April. The results were absolutely amazing, such a basic surgical procedure but very dramatic results from it.

As far as the OSA dental anti-snoring devices, I bought a snorerx device OTC off the Internet last winter. I returned it, however. It was a hassle. It made me drool with it in my mouth and felt weird in my mouth.

I do believe an OTC dental device would work for mild OSA. But you need to be sure you dont have central apnea or mixed apnea. For anything other than mild OSA, I would not mess with it I'd go straight to CPAP therapy. But thats just me. Ive been told the things can really mess up your teeth and you end up looking like a beaver or inbred with a bad overbite, over time using one of the things. I wondered if using one regular might make me start talking like a retard with buck teeth, eventually. So I sent mine back for a refund.

Eric

SuddenlyWornOut45 wrote:I went to a dental guy who had some sort of board certification for making the OSA dental devices. I went to him for a consultation for having one made. The guy did a very good job and diagnosed me with infected tonsils (tonsillitis) which I immediately acted upon and had surgically removed (tonsillectomy) last April. The results were absolutely amazing, such a basic surgical procedure but very dramatic results from it.

As far as the OSA dental anti-snoring devices, I bought a snorerx device OTC off the Internet last winter. I returned it, however. It was a hassle. It made me drool with it in my mouth and felt weird in my mouth.

I do believe an OTC dental device would work for mild OSA. But you need to be sure you dont have central apnea or mixed apnea. For anything other than mild OSA, I would not mess with it I'd go straight to CPAP therapy. But thats just me. Ive been told the things can really mess up your teeth and you end up looking like a beaver or inbred with a bad overbite, over time using one of the things. I wondered if using one regular might make me start talking like a retard with buck teeth, eventually. So I sent mine back for a refund.

Eric

Inbred... retard...??????????????? You are the sick one using those analogies.

I didn't want cpap when the doc first recommended it for mild OSA without significant desats. I then researched the options that he told me about and learned about some options that he didn't tell me about. What I learned about the anti-snoring devices was, as a previous poster mentioned, they will, over time, move your forward and mess up your teeth. I have a lot of money invested in my crowns, and I didn't want to mess up my bite, or change the shape of my face. The surgical options didn't appeal to me on many levels, and I finally realized that the gold standard of cpap is the best option. Two months in, I am reaping the benefits with lowered AHI.... but I'm still working on reducing the snoring, which at some point I will conquer.

library lady wrote:I didn't want cpap when the doc first recommended it for mild OSA without significant desats. I then researched the options that he told me about and learned about some options that he didn't tell me about. What I learned about the anti-snoring devices was, as a previous poster mentioned, they will, over time, move your forward and mess up your teeth. I have a lot of money invested in my crowns, and I didn't want to mess up my bite, or change the shape of my face. The surgical options didn't appeal to me on many levels, and I finally realized that the gold standard of cpap is the best option. Two months in, I am reaping the benefits with lowered AHI.... but I'm still working on reducing the snoring, which at some point I will conquer.

Congrats, for not falling for the hipe, besides the waste of time and money, using a xpap correctly in most cases works, too bad the biggest obstacle to pap treatment is "Can't Do It Syndrome"!

It urks me when people's main concern is snoring, snoring is just a small symptom, the main result of sleep apnea is lose of restorative sleep and O2 stats going low and the stress it causes on your body. Jim

Never saw a sleep study using a dental device and probably never will.

I don't recommend these unless the patient is truly unable to use CPAP (after professional follow-up).

Note that eliminating snoring does not necessarily mean the elimination of Apnea! While most who suffer from the Obstructive variety of Sleep Apnea snore, not all do. Also, those who snored but had anti-snoring interventions are even more likely to have Apenas without snoring.

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