oral dental appliance and retainer questions

[chavill02]

I'm planning to try out an oral dental appliance to try to help my sleep apnea.  It will pull my lower law forward to open up my airway.

The dentist says the device is made by Glidewell.  Does anyone know if this is a good device to try?

I've also read that these devices can possibly mess up your bite/teeth and that it's good to get a retainer to use in the mornings to help keep things realigned.  Is that something I would need to go to an ortho to get (the retainer)?  My dentist office says they don't think they do the retainer also (they just do the oral appliance).

Thanks for any help!

[hegel]

Ssomehow the notion of a dental device moving your teeth and jaw one way over eight hours, followed by another device to re-align things back to normal in the morning, strikes me as...wrong. I doubt the balancing act will work. Worse, I wonder if it won't loosen your teeth.

I do know of one person with mild apnea who claims his dental device is effective. But he's overly worried about his appearance in bed. I've heard a lot more stories that report too much pain is involved, and/or the device was not terribly effective.

[chavill02]

Thanks for the advice on that.  Any other comments about using a retainer along with the dental appliance?  Or has anyone used a dental appliance?

Thanks.

[cbeissel]

I used an oral splint for a few years before moving to a CPAP machine.

I gave up on the oral splint because it pushed my lower teeth forward enough that I lost my front bite.

An orthodontist told me that the teeth would return to normal if I stopped using the splint, pushed back by my lips. Which is what happened.

With the splint I found that I had to mouth breath, which led to a dry mouth.
With the CPAP and a nasal mask I nose breath all night.

Now all I need is a replacement CPAP machine from Philips, or the availability of the Airsense 11 in Australia.

[Homerec130]

When I first started the journey, my GP suggested I try the dental device to help my snoring and sleep. Talked to my dentist about it and he said he could do it, but said it would not work for me. I have an odd resting bite (not a true over bite) and felt the device would cause more harm than good. He was the one the highly recommended I talk to my ENT about a possible sleep study. At the time, I didn't realize the ENT was a sleep doc as well. Got set up for a sleep study and it was one of the smarter decisions I have made.

The joys of having a good professional relationship with your docs.