Are MAD devices really this inconsistent?

[Insomniax]

Hello everyone on the forum,

I just joined in order to post this question, to see if anyone has any relevant experience on the topic above.I was recently diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea earlier this year.The whole waking up in the middle of the night on my back, legs sweating, heart racing.Followed by sudden rushes of anxiety(especially in the morning) that tended to wane as the day progressed.This went on for months until I had a at home sleep test performed that showed me having moderate sleep apnea.It was 43 apneas in 5 hours with my oxygen dipping to 87% at the lowest.

Eventually I ordered a Resmed 10 and tried several different masks.The deal breaker was the continuous air pressure while trying to exhale.It would worsen my anxiety and made it impossible to to sleep.I ended up selling it and discovered a sleep apnea clinic that made a expensive custom mouth piece.I've been using it for almost three months now.Some nights I only have 4-7 events and this is where my oxygen drops either 4% or 3% during those times.If it drops below 90% my blood oximeter ring vibrates and I immediately wake up to adjust my sleeping position.Other nights I may have 30-50 of these events where my oxygen drops once again 3-4%.So I'm never truly rested most times and my anxiety never actually goes away completely.

I did look further into getting a new CPAP machine but instead of a CPAP, getting a BiPAP.I wanted to know before I spend anymore money out the window if a BiPAP would get rid of these 3-4% drops and the number of them?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

Have a good rest of the weekend.

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

That is virtually impossible to answer. You had a CPAP but because of anxiety could not use it. You then went to an expensive device that is not helping. Now you want to consider a bilevel that will possibly cause the same issues as your first machine. We likely could have helped with the first machine settings and avoided this entire scenario. 

My recommendation is this: If you want to give CPAP another go, then a bilevel would be the one I recommend. Whether it will help with your 3%-4% o2 drops is impossible to say without seeing data. It has to be your choice to stay with it and work through the difficulties.

As we have no data to review, the best we can do is guess.

[BoxcarPete]

Can't speak to consistency night to night, but after one year using an MAD I found that it caused more problems than it solved for me. Jaw misalignment was one, and I can't place a causal relationship to it, but I had heart palpitations show up shortly after I started using it and they went away once I switched to something else. Overall, not recommended by many, but for some few it does seem to work.

[Insomniax]

Thanks for the reply and help.I'll make sure to go through a local place to purchase my next one.I'll keep you posted and have hopefully enough data next time.