Long term use of CPAP - any negatives

Good results far outweigh the negatives: some tooth decay, added sneezing daily, constant but small amount of daily running nose, wider nostrals from preferred use of 'pillows', additional nightly routines....11 years of cpap, can't live without it.

Can't sleep without it now. Spent a fortune for amongst others: nightly use of lip balm...I like the Badger brand as it's made with healthy moisturing stuff, masks (I'm tough on 'em), distilled water, soaps finding one that works well and doesn't make me itch/red, bed pillows, extra 4-plug electical receptable by bed, power outage alarm, second machine, medic alert membership with bracelet, and next is backup power of some sort. Long-term? I'm still alive and for awhile I thought that was pretty doubtful.

Gotta brush my teeth more (should anyway)
Longevity--only a minus for those I irritate.
More stuff to get ready before and clean up after--(I've been told I'm lazy)
Not much room on my nightstand for anything else!
--But it's all so WORTH IT!

Here's my take on the negatives! This took place on Thanksgiving Day when my family arrived.

Kiss, Kiss, Hi Mom, Hi Grandma, Everything smells so good!
Kiss, Kiss, Hi Dad, Hi Grandpa, Wow, You look so great!!

I don't think I could sleep without it. I sleep to the sound of a fan at night. I think my cpap is the same for me.

In my opinion, I believe there may be side effects of stretched eardrums, and esophagal/stomach sphincter. I think you all do have to admit that the same increased air pressure going to our lungs also goes to our ears and stomachs.

Hello,
I have been on Cpap for a year now and I know I cannot sleep with out it....I would be afraid to even try. The negative for me is that my eyes have taken a true beating since beign on the machine. A lot more wrinkels and very puffy eyes all the time. Have even been told that my eyes look really swollen so I firmly beleive it does cause more wrinkels. I can live with the wrinkels, but I cannot live without my machine.
Bren

Lots of farts, long and loud. Didn't have that problem before cpap. But, I sleep much better and I feel great.

Negatives - hmmm...

The first year I was using a mask that the headgear was causing a spot on my hair to get VERY sparse. Glad it wasn't a mask I loved. No trouble after switching. Some have reported dental issues with their teeth actually shifting due to pressure from tight masks. I don't consider any slight widening of my nares from nasal pillows a negative. Always had slits and always wanted to be able to flare my nostrils. Still can't. Maybe in 5 more years.

kempo wrote:Lots of farts, long and loud. Didn't have that problem before cpap. But, I sleep much better and I feel great.

Hey, re-read the title. Snoozysue asked about "negatives" john

snoozysue wrote:I have been using CPAP since April and it has dramatically improved the quality of my life - don't like all the associated "gear" but it does work
I am curious about long term use of CPAP and wonder if anyone who has been using it for several years or more has noticed any negative results?
I am sure the positive will always outweigh the negative but I was just wondering??

One recent study:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 092710.php

IMO it is unlikely that you are going to find a person who uses regulary CPAP for years if it doesn't work or it has important "negatives". Let alone reply you in this forum. (S)he who doesn't sleep well with cpap will abadon it in the long term.

I'm also a relatively new user who is very interested in the possible long term affects of CPAP---mainly because I have yet to feel any real improvement in quality of life (or sleep, for that matter) and I have been having some real physical side affects that have been hampering my ability to adjust to CPAP.

Very early on, I had serious problems with air in my eyes that were NOT related to mask leaks. Since my pressure was reduced it's been less of an issue. But on the bi-level titration that was done last week, one of my first comments was "I feel air blowing into my left eye from *inside*---it's not a leak." Mind you, this was at the initial starting pressure of 8/4 I believe. So I actually am quite worried that my using CPAP may well involve dealing with a long term problem with my eyes.

I also don't think that it's good long term to have all the additional air in my stomach every morning. The problem is not merely cosmetic in the sense of lots of farts and belches---I could live with that and even come to enjoy the adolescent male humor it involves. But my problem is that all that air can and does disturb my sleep in a significant fashion: It is no fun to wake up at 2:30 in the morning and not be able to even try to get back to sleep for a couple of hours while waiting for the stomach to get comfortable enough to try to lie down. On bad nights, I honestly think I've lost more sleep to the CPAP stomach ache than I would have from the apneas.

I'm very worried that CPAP will cause additional problems with my already troubled bite. I feel like my teeth have started to move since starting CPAP in a way very similar to how they move when you've got braces on---slow, steady, but definitely moving: I don't think my bite is properly aligned any more and this will create future dental expenses that will likely not be covered by my dental insurance.

And then there's my badly chapped lips---in spite of the humidifier, the lanolin cream, the chapstick, the pillow barrel cozy, and NO LEAKS from the mask, there are mornings where my lips and the skin on and under my nose are red and sore and even cracked. I'm pretty sure that the dang FX's exhaust vents bouncing off covers is part of this problem, but given how sore the inside of my nose gets and how awful my mouth feels when I wake up, I think that the pressure is indeed very dehydrating to me and my skin. (And I am NOT mouth breathing---my leak rate data shows almost no leaks----less than 10 or 15 minutes total leak time per night, and often NO leaks all night long.)

So while I know and understand the real benefits of CPAP therapy, I also am concerned that its potential long term side affects and I don't really think they've been studied all that carefully. Yes, most of the people who are compliant for years seem to do just fine in terms of either adjusting to or not having any really disturbing (as opposed to merely bothersome) side effects. But just maybe there are reasons beyond "I don't want or can't learn to sleep with the mask" that cause a large number of people to abandon CPAP therapy. Maybe some of those folks are suffering real, geniune, and not necessarily benign side effects that are intolerable to them---particularly if they also do not wind up feeling any better using CPAP than they did before starting CPAP.

I now have bags under my eyes,broken superficial veins in my face,wrinkles where I never had them before,and marks that with continued use,night after night,never go away.
My eyes stay puffy and tear all the time.

I too have experienced eye problems with air although the mask does not seem to leak - it's just that any air aorund my eyes seems to dry them out (pressures up to 16 - Quattro mask).
I had a few eye infections at the beginning and found the only way to protect my eyes is to cover them, it is cumbersome and not something I had ever done before but at least the sore, dry eyes and the puffiness underneath my eyes has gone.
I have found Tranquileyes invaluable in helping me to protect my eyes.