My "combination therapy" experiment starting

Per the advice of the dental sleep medicine doctor I recently saw, I am starting off with an OTC oral appliance designed for snoring. And going back to a nasal mask. I will see if this combination solves or partially solves the massive "mouth leak" problem I suffer from when I use nasal masks alone. If this improves my mouth leak significantly but not entirely, I will seriously consider getting a custom oral appliance and "going all the way" with the oral appliance/nasal CPAP combination therapy idea.

First, I got the OTC anti-snore device today. Its a "SnoreRX." I boiled and bit it today. Thats the first step.

Second, Im going back to my original and favorite nasal mask alone. My Resmed Activa mask. I will sleep with JUST the Activa and not SnoreRX for several days. I will gauge what my leak rate is on my machine daily, along with gauging how I feel during the day after I wake up. And of course I will keep track of how many times I wake up a night with air gushing out of my mouth from mouth leak.

After a couple days of just using the Activa nasal mask alone, I will add in the SnoreRX anti-snore device. This is the closest thing you can get to a custom made, prescription oral appliance, like a Somnodent oral appliance. Without getting the prescription made device made and paid for. I will then be able to tell the first night if adding in the SnoreRX device slows my mouth leak if any and if it does, by how much. I will also gauge what I feel like with both nasal CPAP and with a SnoreRX at the same time, if the SnoreRX decreases my night time awakenings due to mouth leak and so on.

I am going to tell all forum members paying attention to this, Im not expecting anything wonderful out of this experiment, but I decided to try it. Its cost me $110 for a SnoreRX device.

This will be my first foray into "combination therapy."


Eric

Eric,
Keep us posted, I would welcome any alternative to a chin strap. Can't tape because of a beard and mustache.
What is your pressure?
A T

I have really good luck with the optilife nasal pillow system kinda has a built in chin strap. Best for me so far

Always tired wrote:Eric,
Keep us posted, I would welcome any alternative to a chin strap. Can't tape because of a beard and mustache.
What is your pressure?
A T

Minimum pressure is 10. It ranges from there. My 95th percentile right now is in the 14s. Although it will range up in the 15s and 16s on an S9 APAP to max out. I really need to raise my minimum pressure I know, but I cant tolerate the side effects of a higher sustained pressure. I even tried increasing the sustained minimum pressure with a Bipap last year and it did not work, still got the same side effects (stomach pains, severe).

Eric

BTW, SnoreRX shipped it really fast. It was also really easy to make today. I just boiled the water, followed the instructions and it was boiled and bit. Then I "clicked" the lower jaw part out from the default 3 mm out to 5 mm.

Eric