Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Mild OSA, CPAP vs. Oral Appliance?

I know this question gets asked often. I've read through most of the relevant threads on here on this topic but thought I would ask you all your thoughts on my particular situation.

6'2" Male, 240 lbs. I don't get a ton of sleep generally (around 6 hours a night), which might explain some of my general fatigue. General symptoms: some snoring as reported by girlfriend; have woken up gasping for air (also reported by girlfriend); generally don't feel super refreshed; often fall asleep while watching TV, etc.

Did a home sleep study. Had the following results:

SUMMARY: The patient had 28 apneas, there are 12 obstructive, 0 unclassified, 16 central and 0 mixed apneas; and 39 hypopneas for a combined apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 12.4 respiratory events per hour. There were 57 snoring events recorded.

OXYGENATION: The patients average oxygen saturation was 97, and the lowest saturation was 82%. There were 5 minutes (2%) below 90% saturation. There were 1 minutes (0%) below 85% saturation.

PULSE RATE: The patient had a minimum heart rate of 51 beats/minute, a maximum heart rate of 90 beats/minute; and an average heart rate of 62 beats/minute.

I've read online that those with mild OSA may not necessarily need CPAP treatment. I really hesitate using one cause I know it'll be very uncomfortable for me (if there is a spectrum for how comfortable one needs to be in order to fall asleep, I'm on the extreme end of said spectrum; I had a ton of trouble even sleeping while doing the home sleep study). I've looked into oral appliances. I have a TMJ disorder (clicking/popping jaw) so it seems a mandibular appliance may be a good first step instead of diving into a CPAP? I know there tends to be somewhat of a bias against oral appliances on this sub but I thought I'd ask.

Also, according to my results, I had 12 obstructive apneas and 16 central apneas. Does the fact that there are central apneas change any of this? Sorry for the barrage of questions. Thanks for any help.

submitted by /u/Esperagus
[link] [comments]

from
https://www.reddit.com/r/SleepApnea/comments/g67h1c/mild_osa_cpap_vs_oral_appliance/

No comments:

Post a Comment