CPAP vs Dental Appliance

[Riekl]

She is just being unrelenting about it. So far she has only tried one night with it and she makes me feel guilty every time I get it out.

Now she wants me to buy this http:// zzomaosa .com/

Which I don't think would help at all since I already sleep on my side?

[palerider]

She is just being unrelenting about it. So far she has only tried one night with it and she makes me feel guilty every time I get it out.

Now she wants me to buy this http:// zzomaosa .com/

Which I don't think would help at all since I already sleep on my side?

so, the real question you should be asking yourself is, "why does this woman want to slowly kill me?"

recent new life insurance policy?

maybe she has a new lover on the side?

whatever it is, she doesn't have your best interests in mind.

[ChicagoGranny]

Oh lord.

[BlackSpinner]

She is just being unrelenting about it. So far she has only tried one night with it and she makes me feel guilty every time I get it out.

Now she wants me to buy this http:// zzomaosa .com/

Which I don't think would help at all since I already sleep on my side?

No she is the guilty one. If you don't want to hand her the pillow to move, you move into the spare room until you have this working and your health under control.

Make an appointment with a marriage counsellor ASAP.
If you were diabetic would she insist you don't test your blood or inject insulin? If it was a wheelchair, would it not be allowed in the house?

[70sSanO]

Do you have a copy of your sleep study?

I may be mistaken, but I believe that your study will indicate your sleeping position. If you were sleeping on our side during your study and had events, you do not have positional sleep apnea.

Also, does this mean that she has moved off of the dental device?

John

[jonny515]

If you have no (or very low)-- say around 5 incidents on your side than on your back that might work. Otherwise that wouldn't work that well.

[OkyDoky]

If you have no (or very low)-- say around 5 incidents on your side than on your back that might work. Otherwise that wouldn't work that well.

How would you know? He has an AHI of 25 and I doubt those were all positional but even if so that looks very uncomfortable. I want to be able to move when something starts aching.
I don't know if his wife is feeling alienated, frightened or just doesn't understand but maybe communicating and figuring out the cause of her feelings would help. There is a lot to learn and maybe keeping her in the discussion would help. Take her with you to your doctor appt. so she will know you are not making this up and there are severe problems associated with Sleep Apnea besides snoring and fatigue.

[Riekl]

I don't believe shes trying to kill me I think she is just being illogical.

She hates the noise, despite how quiet everyone says they are she says it sounds like i'm killing a cat when I am using it. I can only hear myself breathing (P10 with S10 autoset). when i test it i do hear the whine from the intake valve others have discussed but I dont think a fix has been found yet.

[Guest]

As far as an oral appliance - maybe it will work for you, maybe it won't. But a CPAP/APAP will treat your sleep apnea. And the results will likely be quicker than an oral appliance. My experience is below.

I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and had my tonsils out. Still had very mild sleep apnea. I opted for the Herbst oral appliance and my sleep center referred me to a doctor who is board certified in Dental Sleep Medicine (my health insurance covered the Herbst since it is treatment for a medical condition, not my dental insurance).

It took about 8 months to slowly adjust my jaw out to the proper position. I started sleeping better, but still had excessive daytime sleepiness and woke un-refreshed. I had another sleep study during which the Herbst was adjusted out a bit more and I had no more apneas the rest of the night. I had a good amount of REM (previous sleep studies I got at most 20 min of REM a night), but still no deep/delta sleep.

6 months later I still woke un-refreshed and had excessive daytime sleepiness even with Nuvigil each day (with the Nuvigil I get to an Epworth score of about 10-12). Got referred to another sleep doctor. Only helpful thing he told me was that if you compare successfully treated CPAP/APAP patients to successfully treated oral appliance patients a greater percentage of CPAP/APAP patients report feeling refreshed upon waking. No other clues on why I get zero deep/delta sleep.

So about two years since my very mild sleep apnea sleep study, I just started using an APAP 6 weeks ago. It took me about 5 weeks to get things adjusted (mask changes, buckwheat pillow, strap securing) so that I sleep reasonably through the night. I'm planning on giving myself at least 6 months of effective APAP treatment (I'm one week in) to see if I get any improvement in waking refreshed and excessive daytime sleepiness. So 7 months 1 week for the APAP vs 2 years for the Herbst oral appliance.

As for your wife's reaction, perhaps there may be some fear or denial behind it. Sleep apnea is serious (heart disease, falling asleep while driving) and it is scary when your spouse has a serious medical condition. If it's something you can treat with an oral appliance (like a retainer after braces, a bruxism guard for teeth grinding, an oral appliance for "snoring"), it's not as scary as a medical condition that requires a machine, mask, hose, etc.

[jonny515]

You'd only know if thats what it was for the sleep study. During my sleep study I know that incidents were higher on my back than side fairly significantly (mild on side and severe on back). But you wouldn't know ofr anything other than the sleep study, which is one night. I agree that I'm uncomfortable. Been trying to force myself (until I get the CPAP) to stay in a position. I get rather achy tbh.

If you have no (or very low)-- say around 5 incidents on your side than on your back that might work. Otherwise that wouldn't work that well.

How would you know? He has an AHI of 25 and I doubt those were all positional but even if so that looks very uncomfortable. I want to be able to move when something starts aching.
I don't know if his wife is feeling alienated, frightened or just doesn't understand but maybe communicating and figuring out the cause of her feelings would help. There is a lot to learn and maybe keeping her in the discussion would help. Take her with you to your doctor appt. so she will know you are not making this up and there are severe problems associated with Sleep Apnea besides snoring and fatigue.

[OkyDoky]

You'd only know if thats what it was for the sleep study. During my sleep study I know that incidents were higher on my back than side fairly significantly (mild on side and severe on back). But you wouldn't know ofr anything other than the sleep study, which is one night. I agree that I'm uncomfortable. Been trying to force myself (until I get the CPAP) to stay in a position. I get rather achy tbh.

If you have no (or very low)-- say around 5 incidents on your side than on your back that might work. Otherwise that wouldn't work that well.

How would you know? He has an AHI of 25 and I doubt those were all positional but even if so that looks very uncomfortable. I want to be able to move when something starts aching.
I don't know if his wife is feeling alienated, frightened or just doesn't understand but maybe communicating and figuring out the cause of her feelings would help. There is a lot to learn and maybe keeping her in the discussion would help. Take her with you to your doctor appt. so she will know you are not making this up and there are severe problems associated with Sleep Apnea besides snoring and fatigue.

I was meaning how would you know if it was preventing your apnea? You could maybe go by feeling but that's subjective and could be placebo effect. Some people snore and some don't. I Just don't think there is a real good indicator if apnea is controlled. I agree position may be a way to decrease events but not to replace CPAP with this device for long term treatment.

[Troopin]

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO RESPOND DIDN'T SEE THE MESSAGE... ANYWAY THE MUFFLED SOUND AND EQUILIBRIUM WAS ALL CAUSED BECAUSE YOUR JAW CONNECTS APPROX WHERE YOUR EARS ARE. SPEAK TO YOUR DOCK OR LOOK AT A GOOGLE IMAGE OF THE HEAD. MOST PEOPLE DO NOT REALIZE HOW HIGH YOUR JAW ACTUALLY GOES UP ON YOUR SKULL. THEY ALSO DO NOT REALIZE THAT THE MOVEMENT UP THAT HIGH ACTUALLY AFFECTS HEARING AND YOUR EQUILIBRIUM AND BALANCE IS DETERMINED IN YOUR INNER EAR. LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND OPEN AND CLOSE OUR MOUTH. YOU WILL SEE THE TOP OF YOUR EARS MOVE YOUR TEMPLE WILL MOVE ETC. ALL OF THAT IS CONNECTED AND IF NOT PROPERLY ALIGNED ALL KINDS OF SYMPTOMS CAN BE CAUSED BY IT.. THAT'S THE BEST WAY I CAN EXPLAIN IT. HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND.

[ChicagoGranny]

THE MUFFLED SOUND

If you continuously shout in the forum, maybe he won't hear the muffled sound.

[70sSanO]

You'd only know if thats what it was for the sleep study. During my sleep study I know that incidents were higher on my back than side fairly significantly (mild on side and severe on back). But you wouldn't know ofr anything other than the sleep study, which is one night. I agree that I'm uncomfortable. Been trying to force myself (until I get the CPAP) to stay in a position. I get rather achy tbh.

If you have no (or very low)-- say around 5 incidents on your side than on your back that might work. Otherwise that wouldn't work that well.

How would you know? He has an AHI of 25 and I doubt those were all positional but even if so that looks very uncomfortable. I want to be able to move when something starts aching.
I don't know if his wife is feeling alienated, frightened or just doesn't understand but maybe communicating and figuring out the cause of her feelings would help. There is a lot to learn and maybe keeping her in the discussion would help. Take her with you to your doctor appt. so she will know you are not making this up and there are severe problems associated with Sleep Apnea besides snoring and fatigue.

I was meaning how would you know if it was preventing your apnea? You could maybe go by feeling but that's subjective and could be placebo effect. Some people snore and some don't. I Just don't think there is a real good indicator if apnea is controlled. I agree position may be a way to decrease events but not to replace CPAP with this device for long term treatment.

There may be an easy test, but it depends on whether or not the OP wants to do this. Run the CPAP/APAP at a minimum set pressure of 4. Hopefully the machine will read the events and the pressure will be too low to stop them (providing the normal pressure is much higher).

I will say that when I am sleeping I am oblivious of how I look with a hose attached. I'm sure my wife does not see it as an attractive visual, but she has been more than supportive and would be really ticked off if I didn't use my CPAP machine and jeopardized my health. We have had over 35 great years of marriage and almost 15 of those years have been on CPAP.

John

[jonny515]

There may be an easy test, but it depends on whether or not the OP wants to do this. Run the CPAP/APAP at a minimum set pressure of 4. Hopefully the machine will read the events and the pressure will be too low to stop them (providing the normal pressure is much higher).

I will say that when I am sleeping I am oblivious of how I look with a hose attached. I'm sure my wife does not see it as an attractive visual, but she has been more than supportive and would be really ticked off if I didn't use my CPAP machine and jeopardized my health. We have had over 35 great years of marriage and almost 15 of those years have been on CPAP.

John

Your test sounds logical (4 is awfully low though). OTOH, I think it is dubious that side sleeping is going to eliminate moderate sleep apnea. I think his wife sounds deep in denial, so this is the second alternative. Perhaps OP should pull out the digeridoo and claim he can only play 30 minutes before bed. I believe his wife might LOVE CPAP after a week of that