Transition off CPAP to oral appliance

[Sleep Nomad]

After 9 years of using a CPAP machine and oral appliance, I have finally transitioned to just using my oral appliance. I had worked my CPAP pressure down to 4. I went to see an ENT doctor and he said he didn't think I needed the machine anymore, just the oral appliance. He said I should go get a sleep study to confirm it. Well I went for an in lab sleep study and sure enough I had zero obstructions with one CA and one hyponea.

I was stunned because I was afraid not use the machine. I stopped using the machine on March 28th. What I found was that I was waking up with headaches and a bit tired at the beginning. I thought the sleep study must have been a fluke. I bought a finger pulse oximeter with a vibration alarm to keep myself safe. It did go off on some nights at the beginning. I still didn't just trust that I was safe sleeping like this. As nights passed, the low O2 episodes subsided as did the headaches and tiredness. My O2 and pulse rate became very stable to the point that I stopped needing to wear it. Last night I slept for 8 hours straight like a normal person. It seems to me that just like it took a month+ to adjust to using a CPAP machine, it takes the same amount of time to get off of it. As if your body has to learn how to breathe again and over time, it does. I am certainly elated to be able to sleep like this again but I am a realist. I will to go back to the machine if needed. I do have a whole box of brand new dreamports that are going unused

Has anyone else moved off of a CPAP machine to using just an oral appliance? Did you experience the same adjustment period? Did you stay off the machine?

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

Congratulations on being able to move away from cpap with the oral device. It does work for some people.

As for personal experience here....I don't know too many members hanging around here that don't still use the cpap machine.
After all this is a cpap help forum....anyway.....if I didn't have to use cpap I doubt I would hang around here.
But maybe a few lurkers are in the same boat as you are.

[zonker]

After 9 years of using a CPAP machine and oral appliance, I have finally transitioned to just using my oral appliance.

congratulations! and thanks for mentioning that you had another test afdter going off of the machine. there is no arguing with data!

and yeah, it seems rather rare that folks can do what you did.

thanks for sharing.

[tyrone747]

Great news. What oral device was it that worked for you?

[Sleep Nomad]

Thanks for the friendly welcome! It does seem rare that people get off CPAP machines but it is possible! I am proof and I don't think I am special in any way. Though I have tried all sorts of crazy things to improve my sleep apnea . Perhaps you are right in that folks that do manage to get off the machine, might not come around to post. This was the only place I could think of that I might encounter someone that has already experienced this. I have been a fellow hose head for long time and I have certainly benefited from the info this board has provided over the years.

[Sleep Nomad]

Great news. What oral device was it that worked for you?

My oral appliance is about five or six years old. It is a somnomed. I just looked at their website and the oral appliance looks like mine so perhaps they haven't changed much.

[tyrone747]

Great news. What oral device was it that worked for you?

My oral appliance is about five or six years old. It is a somnomed. I just looked at their website and the oral appliance looks like mine so perhaps they haven't changed much.

Wonderful. I'm glad you were able to wean yourself off CPAP. You mention on your blog you were able to get down to a pressure of 4 before quitting. What mask did you use for this? I think I might find it hard to breath at 4.

[chunkyfrog]

Congratulations!
So glad you went through the process scientifically.
You have set a good example for others interested in doing the same.

[D.H.]

I like my CPAP because I get efficacy data every night!

[Sleep Nomad]

Great news. What oral device was it that worked for you?

My oral appliance is about five or six years old. It is a somnomed. I just looked at their website and the oral appliance looks like mine so perhaps they haven't changed much.

Wonderful. I'm glad you were able to wean yourself off CPAP. You mention on your blog you were able to get down to a pressure of 4 before quitting. What mask did you use for this? I think I might find it hard to breath at 4.

Hi tyrone,

Interesting thing on the pressure at 4. I too thought it was impossible to breathe at 4. I had tried it in the past and felt like I couldn't breathe as well. I was wrong though. At some point I reduced my pressure to 4 then laid down and didn't feel suffocated so I decided to try it. You can breathe at a pressure of 4. I got to the point that breathing at 4 didn't feel uncomfortable. It was just like breathing at a pressure of 5. I was using a dreamwear. I also tried the new dreamport at a pressure of 4 for about a week. I found it felt a bit hard to breathe with it at 4 and I couldn't sleep all night with that. I only tried it for around a week before going off the cpap machine as they had just come out. Additionally, I think I might have had my humidity up too high with the dreamports.

[Sleep Nomad]

D.H.
I completely agree with you that once you get off your CPAP machine, you lose that security of having data. It is a big hole. The only way we currently know how our sleep apnea is doing is with CPAP machine data. That being said, if you have a sleep study that says you don't need a cpap machine, what do you do? If there was some way to get that data without having the pressure of the machine, I would love it. It is the same question the ENT asked me. He said he didn't think I needed the machine anymore. He asked "How is my apnea without the machine?" I said, I don't know because there is no way for me to measure it without the machine. That is why I got the sleep study done. I have found that I am really sleeping better off the machine. Its a trade off.

[Dog Slobber]

Congrats on not needing CPAP anymore.

Would be interesting to know what your original Sleep Study untreated AHI was.

[tyrone747]

You could always use your machine at 4 in a few months time and see if you get any increase in apnea since your last time.

Your blog is quite interesting. How much do you think your recovery can be attributed to the vitamin D protocol and how much is down to the CPAP and oral device?

[Sleep Nomad]

Congrats on not needing CPAP anymore.

Would be interesting to know what your original Sleep Study untreated AHI was.

Dog Slobber,
I love your name. I have a "drool monster" at home too . My original sleep study was done in 2010. I had an untreated AHI of 33/hr. They were all hyponeas. Total desaturations 38/per hour. Lowest oxygen reading was 89%. My pressure was titrated at that point and was set at 8. I have pictures of that study and my new study posted on my blog if you are interested.

[Sleep Nomad]

You could always use your machine at 4 in a few months time and see if you get any increase in apnea since your last time.

Your blog is quite interesting. How much do you think your recovery can be attributed to the vitamin D protocol and how much is down to the CPAP and oral device?

This is a great question and of course it is pure speculation on my part having not been a lab rat the last year. I have wondered about this too.

I only took the B vitamins for 3 weeks, so I don't think they played a big part. I had been using the same CPAP and oral appliance combination for the last 6 years, so that hadn't changed at all.

I am certain that the vitamin D helped. It got me back to sleeping like I hadn't been for years. I started dreaming, less waking up at night etc. Once you start to sleep, then your body starts to heal itself. At least, that is the theory of the protocol. The vitamin D probably plays a role in that healing process but I couldn't tell you how much. The interesting thing is that at the point my sleep apnea started to improve, I wasn't really doing anything different other than the vitamin D that I could point to. The blog was sort of my own personal journal so that in the event that vitamin D worked, I would have some record of what happened.

After it seemed like I was noticing improvement, I started doing lots of other things that I thought would help continue my progress.