Dental fixture to treat apnea--have you heard about it?

[Guest]

I have just had my diagnosis of sleep apnea. The study with the CPAP is now going to my primary Dr. and I will soon have a prescription for a device. I heard about and attended a presentation yesterday about a SomnoMed device which holds the lower jaw from falling back (mandible) and closing the air passage. Does anyone have experience with this treatment--does it work?

Bob

[wolewyck]

I've heard of it to be sure-- just had an appointment with a sleep specialist today, who said it could be an option for me if I wanted. Here are a couple other things he told me:

--Insurance may be less likely to cover it, as a dental appliance (do you have dental insurance)? vs. a CPAP... you'd need to check what your health and/or dental insurance does/doesn't cover.
--It's recommended to get one made by a dentist who has experience with doing this kind of thing... this may not be your regular dentist.

Also, one disadvantage as I see it, is that you don't get a data record of how you're doing. Some CPAP machines have cards that can record the number of apneas/hypopneas, rates of leak from the mask, etc., which can be useful to help monitor treatment efficacy.

[elena88]

I have been practicing setting my teeth on each other in a configuration, I would imagine is much like a dental device..

I think i have been learning to sleep in this position from looking at my results lately..

It does work, but I dont want to have a device in my mouth all night... so Im just going to keep "teeth training" myself..

[Goofproof]

XPAP treatment is the "Gold Standard Treatment", the others fall into the "LEAD Group", most of us here prefer Gold to wasting our money. Jim

[Emilia]

The dental appliances are also prone to making temporomandibular joint pain worse or contribute to it starting up when the jaw is forced into a new position. TMJ is not fun!

[chunkyfrog]

Had a friend with TMJ--that is so not fun!
--very bad trade indeed.
I'd rather just scare the dog.

[BlackSpinner]

I have just had my diagnosis of sleep apnea. The study with the CPAP is now going to my primary Dr. and I will soon have a prescription for a device. I heard about and attended a presentation yesterday about a SomnoMed device which holds the lower jaw from falling back (mandible) and closing the air passage. Does anyone have experience with this treatment--does it work?

Bob

Some people on the board have had success with this. It depends on the shape of your mouth and throat and also on the severity and type of apneas you have. It would do nothing for me. Plus I believe it costs as much if not more then a top of the line cpap machine

[casadelane]

When I started sleep apnea treatment I couldn't use cpap so I got a dental appliance. I used a Thornton Adjustable Positioner (TAP®) oral appliance for about six months at first to treat my moderate sleep apnea. It might work for you but everyone is different. The dental appliances DON'T totally fix or alleviate your apnea events. At most they might remove up to 75% of the blockages but, as it turned out for me, that was not good enough. After 6 months using the TAP device I started getting really tired again and eventually had to go back to CPAP to cure me.

The TAP device is very tough on your jaw and teeth. The forward motion of the TAP device on your lower jaw to open up your airway takes it toll on you. I find its easier to use CPAP now over the TAP device and I feel much much better. I will use the dental appliance when going camping or overnight somewhere where I don't want to bring the cpap machine so its nice to have that option.