Mouthpiece for mild OSA- concerns about side effects

Hello,

After having been recently diagnosed with mild OSA (I am young and thin), I will be considering a mouthpiece as a treatment option.

I am concerned however about the awful side effects I might experience...i.e. bad jaw pain, saliviation. The one I am most concerned about is the jaw misalignment over time...would this mean if I was to use this therapy for long enough that I would look noticeably different from my jaw moving forward?

Some responses from people who use a mouthpiece would be helpful.

Many Thanks in advance.

Rydog, young and thin are those who usually don't get diagnosed. I am glad that you are looking at your treatment options. My mother was diagnosed early and refused treatment until later in life when her health had significantly deteriorated. I applaud you for your willingness. There are at least 6 or more different dental devices out there. I encourage you to do your research and look at the features and benefits and reviews on each device. There is no one size fits all treatment. The device that may be best for you may not be the choice of someone else. Dental devices have come a long way in recent years with more options on the market than ever before.

I don't know much about dental appliances. I don't believe they do anything for central apnea. So if you go down that road, make sure your issue is obstructive apnea, not central apnea.

It is good to ask questions and to get feed-back from others who have the same issues as you do. But always, always do your homework too. Find reputable sites to review ANY items and know all you can about your own situation. Sierra is right, dental devices won't work for central apnea. Good luck!

I am a dentist working in dental sleep medicine. I think that you bring up some very good points. Both CPAP and oral appliances are relatively new modes of treatment. The truth is that we really don't know what happens if people are on these treatments very long periods of time(20, 30, 40, 50 years or more)because no one has ever done it. Never-the-less, common sense would tell you that you would be better off with treatment than without it. At the risk of angering all the CPAP loyalists out there, I would say that oral appliances have a considerably shorter list of potential side effects than does CPAP. It is true that oral appliances can cause tooth movement and bite alteration over time. However, in most cases, the effects are mild enough to be barely visible, although there are a small percentage of people who get more severe problems. Of course, our present time horizon would probably be under 20 years and no one would know for much longer time periods. On balance though, oral appliances are less invasive than CPAP and would probably be a better choice for a young person with a potentially long treatment life, as long as he was in the mild to moderate range. Arthur B. Luisi, Jr., D.M.D.