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HappyandSad

HappyandSad
Joined Jun 2018
HappyandSad
Joined Jun 2018

I started using an oral appliance 8 months ago under the direction of a dental specialist. We gradually advanced the appliance 1 millimeter at a time (to 3 millimeters) until I could tell that I felt rested the next morning. I had another overnight sleep study and had lowered my episodes from 24 to 7, so I was very pleased. The clinic requested that I have the appliance advanced another half millimeter to hopefully bring me down to a number less than 5, so I did. This is the "happy" part of my story, as I could not tolerate the cpap at all, and this was working fine. The "sad" part is that my jaw isn't returning to its original position in the morning. I had exercises to do each morning, and I will confess that I wasn't totally diligent about doing them, but I did not realize that this would be the result: My bite has changed significantly, and it has affected my speech somewhat. Friends say they wouldn't have known if I hadn't told them, but this really bothers me. The dental specialist sent me to a physical therapist specializing in the jaw, and I worked with her for a while, but nothing changed. My regular dentist suggested I move it back one millimeter to see if that helped, so my dental specialist did that. I've been doing my exercises regularly, but so far no change. The dental specialist told me that this happens to some people, and I might have to decide to just live with the change in bite or stop using the appliance and hope my jaw returns to its original position or perhaps get braces if I do stop using it. Has anyone else had this issue and, if so, had success correcting it?