It's not quite as uncomfortable as it looks.
First night I fired up the recording oximeter and used just the mouthpiece. First night in five years without using CPAP. The oximetry report the next morning did not look as horrible as my three baseline reads which were done while I was waiting for my CPAP machine in 2009, but alas, it was also not so well-behaved as I see when using the CPAP. I would guess and AHI in the ballpark of 10-15. Not what I was hoping for.
I decided to find the optimal CPAP+mouthpiece settings before doing any more solo mouthpiece experiments. My pre-mouthpiece settings are APAP @17.5-20.0 and usually get AHI numbers in the 3.5 to 6.5 range (Resmed Autoset S9 with FFM)
I did two nights using CPAP @14.0 AHI of 2.1 and 3.6
I did two nights using CPAP @12.0 Similar results as above
I did a night using CPAP @10.0 AHI of 8.6
So for the past couple weeks I've been using APAP @11.4-13.4 and having numbers in the 1.5 to 5.5 range with 3.5 as the average.
So basically using the mouthpiece, I've been able to reduce my air pressure a full 6cm and get slightly better than usual numbers as a result. Aerophagia is greatly reduced. Mask leak is better.
Being able to do a pressure reduction of this magnitude was my bottom line of what I needed to get out of the mouthpiece to consider its purchase a success.
Now I'm not completely finished monkeying around, since the mouthpiece is still set to the "default" position, but it is possible to adjust it to bring the lower jaw even further forward. I've got no issues with jaw mobility or soreness, so my dentist has recommended that I go ahead and adjust it forward and see what that does.
If anything interesting occurs, I'll report back.
Overall, right now, I would say the very slight discomfort involved using the device is more than made up for by the pressure reduction benefits.
Paul J.
