Chin strap to prevent apneas?

[balor123]

Anyone see this product? It looks like a regular old chin strap, which you can buy for $10, no? I'm curious to see if anyone has verified that it works.

[drj130]

That is what it looks like to me. Sorry, but there is no way I'm gonna risk my life or marriage to something like that.

[NateS]

Anyone see this product? It looks like a regular old chin strap, which you can buy for $10, no? I'm curious to see if anyone has verified that it works.

A tight chinstrap may stop snoring because snores really occur through the mouth, not the nose as most people assume.

But how can keeping your mouth shut keep your throat airway open to avoid obstructive (breathing blocked) apneas?

And how can keeping your mouth shut prevent central (failure to take a breath) apneas?

On the face of it, this simply doesn't make sense.

Regards, Nate

[forthguy]

Well, I assume the two studies they reference are:
Treatment of Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome with a Chinstrap
The effects of chin lift and jaw thrust while in the lateral position on stridor score in anesthetized children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy.

Not exactly exhaustive...

[BlackSpinner]

Well, I assume the two studies they reference are:
Treatment of Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome with a Chinstrap
The effects of chin lift and jaw thrust while in the lateral position on stridor score in anesthetized children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy.

Not exactly exhaustive...

The first one had a study of 1 (one) person.

I have severe apnea - wearing a chin strap meant I woke up more tired and with a blinding head ache. Oh and I still snored. So using that study and adding me you have 50/50 chance of it working.

[tst29m]

Anyone see this product? It looks like a regular old chin strap, which you can buy for $10, no? I'm curious to see if anyone has verified that it works.

I've tried that very same chin strap, but I got it from Amazon for much less. It didn't come even close to working for me. Plus, they charged almost $10 in shipping. I was looking for a chin strap to keep my mouth closed. This one has so much elastic that to do the job of keeping my mouth closed, I had to tighten it so tightly that it was very, very uncomfortable. It's going back to Amazon's seller, but with the high shipping charges, I feel like I've paid for it any way! Like many of you, I keep wasting money on something that may, or may not, work! Anyone try an oral appliance?

[49er]

Anyone see this product? It looks like a regular old chin strap, which you can buy for $10, no? I'm curious to see if anyone has verified that it works.

I've tried that very same chin strap, but I got it from Amazon for much less. It didn't come even close to working for me. Plus, they charged almost $10 in shipping. I was looking for a chin strap to keep my mouth closed. This one has so much elastic that to do the job of keeping my mouth closed, I had to tighten it so tightly that it was very, very uncomfortable. It's going back to Amazon's seller, but with the high shipping charges, I feel like I've paid for it any way! Like many of you, I keep wasting money on something that may, or may not, work! Anyone try an oral appliance?

Hi,

I previously posted a link to an oral appliance study that unfortunately has disappeared. But here is a repost of my summary.

I just found what looks like a great study comparing the success rate of fixed dental appliance with ones that are adjustable which turns out to be the TAP appliance. Not sure what the fixed one was. A successful outcome was considered to be an AHI of 5 or below.

Unfortunately, I tried to repost the table of results but the formatting was lost when I pasted the information in this post. But the highlights were that for mild apnea (average AHI of 9.6), the success rate for the TAP was 73.4% and 63.8 for the fixed.

The success rate for moderate apnea was lower than I expect which was 52.2% for the TAP. I had previously thought that was around 60%. But interestingly, according to the table for people with AHIs of 20-29, the success rate does end up near 60%.

For the fixed appliance, it is 35%.

For severe apnea, the success rate for the TAP is 44.62% which actually was higher than I initially thought. But again, certain AHI ranges in the severe category had a higher success rate at 60%. These turned out to be from 35 to 44.

For the fixed appliance, it is 37.8. which is higher than it is for the moderate range.

Anyway, if you are serious about pursuing a dental appliance option, I would go to http://www.apneasupport.org/sleep-apnea ... n-f20.html and pay particular attention to the posts by sleepdent. He has saved me big time from going with sleep medicine dentists who would have been a disaster. By the way, he is also a big advocate of the TAP appliance.

49er

[49er]

I am not making this up, I swear. Last year, out of curiosity, I used my leak strap as a chin strap and then put on my neck collar. After I woke up from a very brief nap, I had energy I hadn't had in months. I was actually able to accomplish multiple errands during the day which hadn't happened previously for ages.

Unfortunately, I never came close to replicating this success. I guess that one moment was a once in a million shot that just wasn't going to happen again.

Anyway, because of that experience, I could see a chin strap working for some lucky soul to prevent apnea. But obviously, the chances would be as slim as what happened to me.

49er

[avi123]

I use this Chinstrap:



http://www.patientsleepsupplies.com/Pur ... 7AodYzUAnA

It helps me a lot by avoiding mouth breathing while I am on my S9 APAP.
I also use it while taking naps without the machine.
I agree that a chinstrap has a roll in avoiding Snores as this report suggest:

http://www.howlifeworks.com/article.asp ... dIuM.email

By holding the mouth closed the wearer is forced to breathe through the nose. The patient mentioned in the above report had an anatomical malformation in the nose. By forcing this person to exhale thru the nose it created an elevated EPAP and thus caused the airway to stiffen and by avoiding its collapsing it also prevented obstructive events similar to a Provent action .

Read here how Provent works:

Provent Nasal EPAP: A Skeptic Turns Believer

http://www.sleepdt.com/provent-nasal-ep ... -believer/

[danielqk]

Agree with 49er, Tap 3 has dual functions. It works as a chin trap to lock lower jaw and bring forward a bit more.
Combine with positional pillow, to me, this therapy can be a cpap alternative
when I was tired of high cpap pressure.

[chunkyfrog]

I think I saw one of those in the medical quackery museum, right next to the penis enlargers.