Sleep Apnea

I was recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea ……(AHI..10.6)

Anyone out there with similar diagnosis and how were you treated ? Do you think it is relevant to be treated with a mild case if
one is considering an ablation?

Yes Whitehaven,
It is a very good idea to treat OSA (obstructive sleep apnea), especially if you have AFIB. And some folks with mild to moderate OSA can do well by seeing a good biological dentist who specializes in making custom mouth peices designed for treating sleep apnea. And keep in mind, that these special OSA mouth pieces are not the same as the anti-teeth grinding mouth guards one can often find at a local drug store.

It’s always a good idea for anyone diagnosed with AFIB to get a sleep study and/or wear a ‘WatchPAT’ device at night for a period of time to capture and record the apnea to understand the severity. This is especially true for Afibbers with known heavy snoring or who’s significant other notices that the person tends to stop breathing for periods during the night followed often by short gasping when they catch their breath again.

OSA is a real contributor to AFIB for many folks and can impact Ablation efficacy too.

Shannon

I did a sleep study post-ablation and was diagnosed as mild OSA. I chose septoplasty (deviated septum surgery) over CPAP or dental device. I think it helped but haven’t re-done the sleep study since. I would not re-do the septoplasty. It was hell. Lots of pain. The opioids gave me short (< 10 second) runs of AF so I flushed them and just used ibuprofen. That only dulled the pain, so I drank beer through a straw to get to sleep. If anyone repeats that, I’ll deny it till the day I die!

Ha! Wolfpack ... We now know your blackmail trigger :-).. And I can imagine that septoplasty was no fun at all!

Best wishes!
Shannon

Imagine someone smashed a cinder block on your face and you’ll get the idea!

I definitely have improved flow. I used have almost complete to complete obstruction of my right side, now that rarely happens. I suspect the surgeon did some mild damage or created some mild scarring very near the trigeminal nerve. If anything inflames my sinuses I get splitting headaches on my right side. Pain behind the eye and extending rear wards along the surface of my scalp to about the midpoint of my head. Ibuprofen will generally knock that down and thankfully it doesn’t happen that often now that it’s warmer weather and my kids, 6 and 8, aren’t bringing a steady stream of rhinoviruses home from school.

All things to consider should anyone be weighing the options for OSA. I just happen to be one of those who can not tolerate a CPAP. I have terrible trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep so dressing up like Darth Vader was a no-go from the start!

In my quest to eliminate all possible triggers, I wore an r-r heart rate monitor during sleep many years ago. You can see apnea patterns in the tachogram (HR vs time graph). I saw mild ones in mine. I started taping my mouth shut at night to be sure I was breathing through my nose. My heart rate patterns cleaned up very significantly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2019 07:35PM by GeorgeN.

George How in the Hell did you sleep with your mouth shut with tape? LOL You must be a sound sleeper. I have to wear a full face mask for CPAP therapy because I am a mouth breather. It took me months to find a mask I could comfortably sleep with and now I cannot sleep without it.

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smackman
George How in the Hell did you sleep with your mouth shut with tape? LOL You must be a sound sleeper. I have to wear a full face mask for CPAP therapy because I am a mouth breather. It took me months to find a mask I could comfortably sleep with and now I cannot sleep without it.

Point is not to mouth breath. That is an issue and it has taken an effort. I've had nasal congestion since I was born or at least since I can remember and my mother told me I had it as long as she could remember. I've changed my diet (which helped significantly) and I breath through my nose at all times I'm conscious, including during exercise and exercise at high altitude. Then I tape my mouth to insure I'm nasal breathing at night. If I feel I need to open my mouth during exercise, I will slow down.

Just by breathing through my nose, it got easier.

Friends,

I'd like to insert a word of caution about getting and using a dental device or mouth piece for sleep apnea from a dentist specializing in sleep therapy.

I have mild OSA and used a CPAP for several months.I heard about these dental devices--the term I heard was MRD (Mandibular Repositioning Device)--and got a prescription for one. Insurance paid, and I used it for going on ten years happily. Certainly easier and (for me) as effective as CPAP.

The problem with these devices is that they have at least one fairly serious side effect for some users: They can move the jaw permanently forward so your dental bite is ruined. Perhaps because of the neglect of the dentist who was responsible for my care, this happened to me. I'm told now that my bite can't be fixed, even though we tried using those new plastic "invisible" aligner trays for almost a full year to reposition the teeth (not the jaw). I'm told that the only thing I can do now is get serious, old-fashioned braces--which would be odd at my age. But even that would not restore the positing of the jaw.

What the long term effects of having one's jaw out of wack might be, I'm not sure. But I thought I'd give this word of warning.

Meanwhile, I'm back on a CPAP machine.

All best wishes,

--Lance

Thanks Lance,

Had not heard of that long term complication possible with these mandibular repositioning devices. Do you know if there is any thing along the lines of a periodic switching to a different positioned brace that might help prevent a permanent resetting of the jaw to an undesirable position? Or any other maintenance protocol to lessen or eliminate this risk to address on-going with regular follow up from the biological dentist?

Good to know to discuss with dentist. Also to ask if all such devised are equally prone to this long term effect or if some are less prone to causing that unwanted outcome?

How you can find some solution that works for you Lance!

All good questions to ask any prospective biological dentist.

Shannon

Quote
whitehaven
I was recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea ……(AHI..10.6)

Anyone out there with similar diagnosis and how were you treated ? Do you think it is relevant to be treated with a mild case if
one is considering an ablation?

I was diagnosed in an overnight sleep study after my first ablation failed, and literally days before my Natale ablation. My numbers were very similar as I recall, and I wasn't then (or now) overweight nor did I have any other outward obvious indicators. My EP at the time didn't even think I had OSA, but he wanted to rule it out. I did snore occasionally, and I was ALWAYS tired in the afternoon, to the point of barely being able to stay conscious, even sometimes napping at my desk. I chalked it up to getting older.

2 days after starting treatment with the CPAP machine I felt like a new man, it made that much difference. I view it as insurance for my heart and CV system. Some nights it sucks, but I've adapted. It's an important tool that I now consider critical in the fight against arrhythmia. The hammer of course was/is the skill and dedication from Dr. Natale and TCAI/St. Davids.

So absolutely yes, treatment is relevant, and important and critical. So is weight control, exercise and nutrition.

Quote
smackman
George How in the Hell did you sleep with your mouth shut with tape? LOL You must be a sound sleeper. I have to wear a full face mask for CPAP therapy because I am a mouth breather. It took me months to find a mask I could comfortably sleep with and now I cannot sleep without it.

Irish breathing instructor, Patrick McKeown, has written, presented and done podcasts on this topic. For a sample of this, here is one of his books: <[buteykoclinic.com]

Quote
Shannon
Do you know if there is any thing along the lines of a periodic switching to a different positioned brace that might help prevent a permanent resetting of the jaw to an undesirable position? Or any other maintenance protocol to lessen or eliminate this risk to address on-going with regular follow up from the biological dentist?

Good to know to discuss with dentist. Also to ask if all such devised are equally prone to this long term effect or if some are less prone to causing that unwanted outcome?

Shannon,

Good questions. I'm aware that now they have an additional device that one can wear in the morning for some time, e.g., while in the shower. This supposedly resets the jaw back. Since this resetting of the bite is now a known side effect, I imagine that they are working on other options, and perhaps they've come up with a MRD that avoids this issue completely, I don't know. Unfortunately, I was a relatively early adopter and my dentist, at least, didn't warn me, or keep an eye on what was going on. I'm just beginning research on my options.

All best wishes,

--Lance

Folks, try taping your mouth it isn't really dangerous. There are safe options if you don't want to use medical tape. Some I know have used these strips and they swear by it, see link please

[somnifix.com]

There are so many benefits from nose breathing in general and most of us don't even realize it throughout the day and this deprives the body of nitric oxide among other things. Many studies are now finding links of nitric oxide and nose breathing tied to heart, lungs, blood circulation, blood pressure and etc. So if you spend 6-8 hours with your mouth open over time it progresses and you feel awful especially if you're overweight. I have always been a light sleeper and would often wake up at night to urinate. Never snored but would wake up with mouth open sometimes, so once I tried taping my mouth and I never looked back, I wake up refreshed, more energy, and I even sleep less, probably due to deep rem sleep I'm getting. So before you think some of us are crazy try it for a night and see how you feel in the morning.

more info.

[www.medhelp.org]


[www.lviglobal.com]

Don't fear CPAP. You get used to it. I'm at the point now where I can't sleep without my machine (and when I left it at an airport TSA spot (they always go over them) I was in full panic mode and slept sitting up in a chair for 2 nights until I got it back.

I am down to 1-2 AHI with the machine and it's been a life-saver, literally.
Nancy

I have been taping my mouth for the past three months. Should you decide to go that route, your local drugstore sells paper tape which makes peeling it off in the morning easier and less painful.

I go one step further, I cut off an appropriate length and tape it onto the back of my hand for a few minutes to make the glue less tacky.

Youtube has information on “mouth taping”