NEW CPAP DEVICE

[marlowe1415]

I'm a student working at the University of Michigan to develop an innovative device that will help patients with sleep apnea through the forward manipulation of the mandible. We have created a device to be used intraorally as a mouth piece that moves the bottom jaw in a forward position, which opens the back of the throat, allowing more air to enter the lungs (similar to the Tap 3). For the purpose of being innovative, we are looking at possibly integrating our device with a CPAP mask and an overhead nasal pillow so that they are connected and work in tandem. I'm looking for some feedback to find if patients would be more interested in using a device that could connect to different CPAP masks as opposed to having to use a CPAP mask, nasal pillow, and intraoral mouthpiece separately. If you have any comments or questions, please jot them down as this project could possibly be put on the market this summer and would greatly improve the quality of sleep of sleep apnics!

jnk... wrote:
I used an oral device for years in conjunction with PAP. The design of the device allowed my teeth to click into it so that it helped my mouth stay shut during PAP, which allowed me to use nasal pillows. Eventually my use of the oral device trained me to keep my mouth shut during sleep. Now I am able to use nasal pillows alone with no oral device. I consider the oral device, used in conjunction with PAP, to have been an important part of my making a success of PAP therapy. However, it required a skilled dentist trained in the making of such devices to make the device for me.

My belief is that in a perfect world, any patient diagnosed moderate to severe OSA would immediately be fitted for an oral device to use until a PAP machine is provided, and that patient should be encouraged to continue to use the oral device during the start of PAP therapy. (But my beliefs tend to be way outside the box.) To my way of thinking, that would put oral devices on a higher plane--something complementary to PAP instead of something in competition with it. When enough dentists were trained, prices would come way down. Furthermore, keeping the mouth closed during sleep would likely improve dental health to the point that the devices would quickly pay for themselves.


This is an example of a excellent response! Please more comments like this. It helps proof of concept of our design