Pillar implants

Hello, I was diagnosed with Severe Sleep Apnea in 2015, but have suffered way before then. I had 101 interruptions an hour during my sleep study. I was prescribed a CPAP , covered by insurance,and I did well with it until I stopped taking sleep meds, I can not go to sleep with that thing on unless I am doped up. The Dr nor myself wanted me back on sleep meds, the withdrawals were horrible.

I was sent to a sleep specialist, who wanted me to practice good sleep hygiene and follow the recommendations the book "No More Sleepless Nights", it did work in helping me to go to sleep without the CPAP...but failed with CPAP, (Just as a note I have always suffered from Chronic insomnia and sleep walk at times.) He also prescribed me Ambian, despite my objections, and I reluctantly tried it. The Ambian will make you sleep, however it also increased my sleep walking and I quit when I discovered I had went out my front door onto the porch and front yard in the middle of the night buck naked. I told my sleep specialist and he said that can sometimes happen and quit taking it. He then referred me to an oral/MMA surgeon.

The Oral surgeon fitted me with what I think is called the Davinci device oral appliance, insurance would not cover this device, and schedule me with an ENT to have tiny implants in my nose and have some sinus material removed. insurance did cover this procedure. That was a very easy surgery and I do breath better now.

The results from my last sleep study, show that I had 36 interruptions an hour...much better that the 101 I had at my first study.

The oral surgeon says we can do better, he wants to get me out of the severe level, and has referred my back to ENT for a consult on Pillar implants. I'm almost positive my insurance will not cover.
Any one had success or failure with the Pillar procedure? Pros Cons ?


The next move would be MMA surgery by my oral surgeon, but its unlikely my insurance company will want to pay for that. I will admit the prospect of actually having a chin and jaw line would be awesome, having the sleep specialist and other DR saying I have have the facial deformities for sleep apnea that would warrant MMA surgery kinda takes a toll on your self esteem. D Trying now to figure out how to pay for that and not bankrupt myself or sell my house LOL.


Sorry so long, but I thought it best if you had the entire history.

The OP has improved his sleep hygiene and can now fall asleep w/o the xPAP. Since the xPAP seems to prevent him from falling asleep medical professionals are looking at other methods to improve the quality and restfulness of his sleep. This seems reasonable and prudent to me as xPAP has failed. after all, as you are so fond of claiming one size does not fit all.

That said, I am not a fan of surgery at all, and IMO I'd rather take a sleep med rather than surgery, but that's a choice that the OP can make far better than anyone on any internet forum, especially those that have no medical training or experience.

TASmart wrote:The OP has improved his sleep hygiene and can now fall asleep w/o the xPAP. Since the xPAP seems to prevent him from falling asleep medical professionals are looking at other methods to improve the quality and restfulness of his sleep. This seems reasonable and prudent to me as xPAP has failed. after all, as you are so fond of claiming one size does not fit all.

That said, I am not a fan of surgery at all, and IMO I'd rather take a sleep med rather than surgery, but that's a choice that the OP can make far better than anyone on any internet forum, especially those that have no medical training or experience.

Many people fall asleep w/o the XPAP, not all of them wake up! Jim

Personally I don't want Mac The Knife working on me! I settle for Air, and my parts attached. Jim

When do we get a link to 3x's TED talk?

TASmart wrote:The OP has improved his sleep hygiene and can now fall asleep w/o the xPAP. Since the xPAP seems to prevent him from falling asleep medical professionals are looking at other methods to improve the quality and restfulness of his sleep. This seems reasonable and prudent to me as xPAP has failed. after all, as you are so fond of claiming one size does not fit all.

That said, I am not a fan of surgery at all, and IMO I'd rather take a sleep med rather than surgery, but that's a choice that the OP can make far better than anyone on any internet forum, especially those that have no medical training or experience.

Totally agree.

As one who feels that I never adapted to pap therapy even though I still use the machine, I wish I had had MMA surgery when I had the chance. For reasons that are too long to get into, I no longer have that option.

Contrary to popular belief on this board, pap therapy is not for everyone. And no, it has nothing to do with laziness or a lack of will.

I doubt many here can give advice based on experience with surgeries because by and large we are all using xpap equipment. However, before you break the bank with surgeries, why don't you give xpap another try. It is cheaper.

The people here can help you adapt to the machine. There are a wide variety of masks and they often are very minimalist in terms of headgear.

If you decide to give xpap another try, join the forum, let us know what your equipment is; machine, mask, settings. We will go from there.

Think about giving it one more try before spending so, so much money.

BiPAP. or ASV do nothing to help a user fall asleep over what a CPAP and APAP do. Advise that a different type of PAP will help the OP's stated problem is incorrect.

Ya should have used the ramp feature to allow you time before the therapeutic pressures started. Oh, that's right, you could not figure out how to change the machine settings.

There you go attacking someone who disagrees with you but has not attacked you. This is despite you frequent claims you only attack when attacked. This is about error number 7 this week.

As far as this thread, how does the type of pressurization device change if one can fall asleep or not. The OP's issue is not sleep maintenance, the issue is sleep onset. I can see how differing algorithms can disrupt sleep, but don't see how sleep onset would be an issue, especially with the ramp.

walkingdeadted wrote: but failed with CPAP

We hear that a lot from people who have not used this forum's help and have not learned how to use the data from their CPAP machine including Sleepyhead software. You should give this a try before considering surgery.

Sorry so long, but I thought it best if you had the entire history.

You left out an important part - your age, please?

I had the pillar procedure and it was easy and painless, but didn't help my snoring.

herefishy wrote:I had the pillar procedure and it was easy and painless, but didn't help my snoring.

No Results = Painful

Herefishy, Do they take the implants out after the scar tissue forms?

Sorry I forgot to add this, I am 51 years old about 5ft 6 and weigh approximately 165lbs, I could stand to drop 10lbs.

The first 3 months with CPAP and meds were awesome, finally the sleep I had been denied most of my life. Things went sour when I asked to stop the sleep meds( I am not a fan of meds). With agreement from Doctor, I withdrew from the meds and my sleep declined or was no existent. I never was able to fall asleep with it on, after trying 3 to 4 hours with it on, I would take it off. I guess after 6 months of that i was sent to sleep specialist, were I cleaned up my sleep habits and environment. Repainted bedroom, new mattress, new bedroom furniture, blackout curtains ( all this because bedroom a had become a place I did not like, knowing all I do in there is flip and fop until morning). Sleep habits, I would get home at about 5:30pm, eat supper, shower and relax until 9pm. No TV, No lights, no computer, no phone, yes i sat in the dark until 9pm, go to bed and repeat in my head, my foot is going to sleep over and over slowly shutting my hole body down and I would fall asleep with CPAP on, then I would roll over, mask would become as-cued and I am awake for the night, tied different mask but always same result. I am a rough sleeper. I tried shortening my down time before bed but was only able to get it down to 3 hours. Sleep specialist was pleased with effort but admitted it would impossible to maintain.

That's when I was sent to surgeon. I have been very pleased with surgeon and I do get a lot of benefit from the oral appliance and the nose implants, I breath much easier now. I think he has done and is doing everything possible to avoid the MMA surgery, because of the cost.

and just as a note, my surgeon is one of the top in my state and teaches at a top medical university so I have faith in his abilities recommendation and part of the year he spends in 3rd world countries repair cleft palets in orphanages., So he is one of the good ones.

Thanx for the replies.

herefishy wrote:I had the pillar procedure and it was easy and painless, but didn't help my snoring.

Do you feel it back there? Thats my main concern as I have a strong gag reaction. I do not have much of a snoring issue, mild to moderate.

I never felt it after the first couple of days, but one of them did "eject" and for the life of me, I can't remember if the doc removed it or it just went back in. Little enough trouble that it didn't make an impression. They leave them in and I never was bothered by the one or both.