NightLase

I was diagnosed with sever obstructive sleep apnea a couple of years ago. I never noticed any effects during the day, no droziness etc.. I'm generally in very good health. My wife and son told me I snored, and that sometimes it sounded like I stopped breathing. I recorded myself overnight using an iPad and what I heard was troubling. I brought it up with my doctor at my annual physical and he scheduled me for a sleep study. After being diagnosed I was prescribed a CPAP. I used the CPAP every night, all night, as prescribed for a month. This was required by the insurance company to ensure compliance. It was awful. I'm a side sleeper and I would keep knocking the mask out of place. I seemed to spend the whole night wrestling with it. By the end of that month I knew what sleep deprivation felt like. Scary. At my follow-up visit with the sleep center at the end of that month I told them I was going to try staring out the night wearing the CPAP, but if became a problem in the middle of the night I was going to take it off, just so I could get some sleep. My thought was maybe I could ease into it, go a little longer each night. That didn't work. After a couple months I gave up.

Last month at my regular dental check up my dentist told me about a new procedure he's offering called NightLase for treating snoring and OSA. He said he's seen good results with the patients he's tried it on, and looking in my mouth he thought I might be a good candidate. There are three treatments, spread out over six weeks, and he zaps the back of my throat with a laser. Each treatment takes about twenty minutes, no pain, no anesthesia. I felt like I had a mild sore throat for about a day after each treatment. All I can say is, WOW! This has made a huge difference for me. Snoring is gone. I must be sleeping a whole lot better now too because I feel noticeably more rested and alert. It's like a fog lifted that I didn't know was there. I'm amazed that this isn't being talked about, or offered as an alternative to CPAP by the sleep center.

Hello @HonestBabyBlueMarten6379. I had not heard of NightLase treatment until your post. Thank you for sharing this information, and I was able to find some details by doing a simple Google search. Did your dentist or physician order a follow up sleep study or some other kind of monitoring to look at changes in your sleep apnea? It would be interesting to know if your obstructive sleep apnea improved in addition to the resolution of snoring. Thanks for posting on MyApnea.Org! Maybe your experience will prompt others to share information about this treatment or offer some insight for patients looking for alternatives to CPAP.

Took a look at a number of articles and they tout the effectiveness of this treatment for snoring and patients getting a good night's rest. OK... that is fine but sleep apnea means you quit breathing and your blood oxygen can get dangerously low. Would be best to test blood oxygen while sleeping AFTER the procedure to see if this aspect of a serious health issue has been addressed by this treatment. I find it odd that it wasn't mentioned. When I had a sleep study, my blood oxygen level went down into the low 70s due to apnea. This low and your organs will become damaged! I bought an inexpensive blood oximeter that can record O2 levels all night and found that my blood 02 levels were great on PAP therapy and have also checked oxygen levels when napping and NOT using my Pap machine and they are poor at times; get your O2 levels checked. A follow up sleep study would be enlightening given the dearth of scientific study of the laser treatment and lack of info on resulting blood oxygen levels in patients suffering from sleep apnea. Good luck and let us know if you follow up on this issue.

I had my annual physical just yesterday and of course told my doc about what I had done. She had never heard of it. I sent an email to the doc at the sleep center and have yet to hear back. I too would like to get some numbers from another sleep study to get a baseline comparison with the study done a couple of years ago. I was really disappointed with my experience at the sleep center. They wanted me in a CPAP and weren't interested in considering any alternatives after I told them that the CPAP wasn't working for me. I haven't heard from them in two years. I am certain that I'm breathing better, even now when awake. I'll pick up an O2 monitor and get some of my own numbers in the meantime.

The other question is how long this lasts? The dentist recommends a single session each year. I've read the three session treatment may be effective for up to two years. It's a new treatment, we'll see how it holds up over time.

I have had the Nightlase procedure done on me. After the procedure was done I had a follow up in home sleep study and it showed that my O2 sats were much higher. I had been dipping to the low 80s and after Nightlase I never fell below 90 and my AHI went from 28 to 9. I would consider that an excellent success! And my husband says I no longer snore. I was unable to wear a CPap and had gone with an oral appliance from my dentist. That was successful as well, but when I heard about Nightlase I was excited to learn that I no longer had to wear an appliance every night. The procedure was easy, painless and quick.

We were the first dental practice in the U.S. to be trained in the Nightlase procedure . Dr.Harvey Shiffman is now the Key Opinion Leader on Nightlase in the U.S. and has trained hundreds of Dentists from around the world. Since 2012 we have been providing the Nightlase therapy to our patients and have seen significant improvements in their sleep quality, quantity and sleep statistics . Nightlase patients have 24 hour a day benefits because Nightlase helps with nasal breathing and there are no appliances or machines to deal with . Compliance is 100% versus Dental Appliances and CPAP and the improvements in sleep disordered breathing is on par medically.