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For sleep apnea, a mouth guard may be a good alternative to CPAP

nytimes.com

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Re: For sleep apnea, a mouth guard may be a good alternative to CPAP

#71

Post by phone8675309 »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #53
abartl wrote: post #48

The danger in this article is that less people might be willing to get a proper sleeep study after reading it and having a false sense that CPAP is terrible. For sleep apnea CPAP WORKS and everything else is a hack. We need more articles encouraging people to try CPAP instead of: here, take this nose clip on Ali Express it might work; or here put this ointment or use this mouthguard. If you snore loud or people say y…

I think sleep studies are over rated and expensive compared to just giving them a CPAP and seeing if symptoms improve. For many, the sleep study takes a long time to schedule, doesn't always work, and as I mentioned terribly expensive.

CPAPs themselves are expensive.

The CPAP machine that I was prescribed would cost me $700 over three months to _rent_, which I would have to pay in advance, with reimbursement from my insurance plan only after I uploaded weekly compliance data dumps. Or, for an additional $200, the machine could upload those data dumps for me.

That's the real barrier for entry for most - cost.

Re: For sleep apnea, a mouth guard may be a good alternative to CPAP

#72

Post by phone8675309 »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #33
rhino369 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t get a cpap machine now and try to lose weight. Lack of sleep makes losing weight harder.

I see no reason why they should get a CPAP machine. What they should do if they have reasons to suspect that they suffer from sleep apnoea is to schedule a sleep study with their doctor.

> schedule a sleep study with their doctor

I have what is considered good insurance, and it cost me $750 out of pocket for a sleep study. So hope you've got the cash.

Re: For sleep apnea, a mouth guard may be a good alternative to CPAP

#73

Post by SubiculumCode »

phone8675309 wrote: post #71
SubiculumCode wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sleep studies are over rated and expensive compared to just giving them a CPAP and seeing if symptoms improve. For many, the sleep study takes a long time to schedule, doesn't always work, and as I mentioned terribly expensive.

CPAPs themselves are expensive. The CPAP machine that I was prescribed would cost me $700 over three months to _rent_, which I would have to pay in advance, with reimbursement from my insurance plan only after I uploaded weekly compliance data dumps. Or, for an additional $200, the machine could upload those data dumps for me. That's the real barrier for entry for most - cost.

But how much does a sleep study cost? Specialize doctors, specialized lab, specialized equipment: $700-$3000.

I got a better deal with my work's insurance plan: it would bill me for it if I didn't use it, and auto logged the data for me. That sounds ridiculous. Also my sleep study was just a unit I wore at home in my own bed. Seems cheaper than an in erson sleep study

Re: For sleep apnea, a mouth guard may be a good alternative to CPAP

#76

Post by schwartzworld »

Tarsul wrote: post #20

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night noticing that it's trouble breathing that wakes me up, it happened the last weeks and months more often than before. However, I also feel this has a lot to do with how much I weigh. Due to corona I did a lot less sports (because I like team sports much more than running etc.) etc. and gained a few pounds. It feels like weighing a few pounds too much (maybe 10 or so) have…

Spoken like everybody who never treated their apnea.

My dad has had 30+ years since he was diagnosed and his apnea symptoms are terrible and really noticeable.

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