Totally agree. My journey started with TMJ disorder. Turns out bruxism (teeth grinding) is common in sleep apnea patients; I assume because it forces the lower jaw forward. I started with a mandibular advancement device and it was amazing. It completely relived my debilitating TMJ jaw pain and fixed my sleep apnea. I couldn’t believe how amazing I fet every morning. Unfortunately, and which was clearly communicated to me by my sleep dentist, after about 8 years my lower jaw stopped resetting back to a normal bite during the day. So I switched to CPAP. I love my nasal pillows plus chin strap CPAP, the sleep quality is unbeatable and my light-sleeping partner would have left to sleep in another room permanently if not for it. Along the way I have tried many other ideas—a tongue suction pull forward thing, a rear tongue electro stimulation device, prone sleeping, wedge sleeping, just the chin strap, and I looked into the pace maker thing and participating in an oral small molecule trial but didn’t follow through with it (also, I’m already thin, just a weak jaw line). Nothing compares to CPAP at high humidity and medium temperature. What has made a major impact was seeing an ENT, and the discovery of sinus blockages, so I recently had major sinus surgery and it’s improved my sleep apnea about 75%! Turns out “negative pressure” is a major cause of airway collapse. So I’m going to try some of the non-CPAP stuff again to see if my partner is able to deal with at most some loud breathing.
Sorry for the long post, but my advice to all is see an ENT if you need a CPAP and are already thin.
Sorry for the long post, but my advice to all is see an ENT if you need a CPAP and are already thin.