Options to stop sleep apnea

[Timothy918]

Do people that are diagnosed with sleep apnea generally just get a pap machine and hope for the best or do you see an ENT to research if a more permanent fix is available?
I recently did an at home sleep study and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. My wife questioned why you would jump right to a pap machine and not research if there's a better more permanent fix. Thanks for any logical/reasonable response.

[Phaleronic]

There's not a more permanent fix that works as well as PAP treatment, and the other options are more invasive.

[SarcasticDave94]

CPAP typically is a better fix than you're giving credit. For some, a surgical procedure will help. Others, surgery helped, and yet they still need CPAP. Then there's those that surgery did nothing, and need CPAP anyway.

CPAP has a higher percentage of success to give therapy than surgical procedures. That is, if you get CPAP set right and can get good results.

The big problems are this, not every Apnea patient gets the support needed, aren't given the tools of knowledge to adjust their own machine, and surgical procedures aren't 100% guaranteed to be enough or permanent.

Also it depends on what medical person you consult with on what they recommend. ENT likely want surgery that they'll gladly do for a fee. Sleep medicine want you on CPAP, consulting with them to edit CPAP pressures frequently.

The free answer... Apnea Board. We'll help with settings on CPAP, help with masks, can help interpret the sleep study. We're not doctors. You can get OSCAR reporting tool free. You also can get your copy of the CPAP setup manual. Naturally we can't help with surgery.

There is no 100% guarantee anything will address your Apnea. None are a cure. CPAP is therapy, and surgery is a repair.

[Timothy918]

Thank you for the great answer. I've enjoyed and learned a lot on the forum.

[BigWing]

There's not a more permanent fix that works as well as PAP treatment, and the other options are more invasive.

Losing weight might, in some cases, be a more permanent fix that works infinitely better than CPAP treatment — and it's not at all invasive!

[Deborah K.]

Yes, losing weight works for some, but there are lots of thin people who have apnea and need pap treatment.

[SarcasticDave94]

For me, 100 lb weight loss from 300 to 200, cut AHI from 74 to 37. Both are severe Apnea and still would need CPAP based therapy.

It took me doing a bariatric sleeve surgery to drop that 100 lbs.

So weight loss is helpful but not a guaranteed fix.

[HalfAsleep]

Permanent compared to what? A PAP machine is pretty much a permanent fix! You can expect long-term usage. And, it’s not invasive, unlike all the other “remedies”, which appear to have a low rate of success.

And, if you’re a snorer, your wife should be very pleased with having you use an xPAP. She might also be excited to know that you will have a significantly lower risk of dying in your sleep, or a variety of other nasties she might not appreciate.

An ENT might advise you to have something like a septoplasty (i.e. for a deviated septum). This may or may not enhance your xPAP experience, but will not obviate an xPAP.