This is a list of resources I found helpful when evaluating whether Theodore Belfor’s Homeoblock palate expansion appliance was the best option for expanding my airway and potentially curing my obstructive sleep apnea. (more…)
This is a list of resources I found helpful when evaluating whether Won Moon’s Microimplant Assisted Rapid Palatal Expander (MARPE) named Maxillary Skeletal Expander (MSE) was the best option for expanding my airway and potentially curing my obstructive sleep apnea. (more…)
Here is a bookmark list of resources I found helpful while researching and evaluating the Vivos DNA/mRNA appliance for treating my obstructive sleep apnea. It is undoubtedly incomplete but it’s a good staring point: Some of the links will lead you to lots of further information.
After doing a lot of research into palate expansion options to treat my obstructive sleep apnea, I’ve decided to go with the Vivos DNA appliance. Actually, I’m getting the mRNA version which also advances and expands the lower jaw. This should give me more tongue space in my mouth, stop it blocking my airway and get me off my CPAP machine earlier.
Several dentists trained in dental sleep medicine, an othrodontist and a couple of ENTs have told me that I have underdeveloped jaws and a retrognathic maxilla as a result of the orthodontic extractions and retractive braces that I had when I was aged 13. This has left too little space in my mouth for my tongue, which collapses into my airway when I sleep. The condition is compounded by the gradual loss of muscle tone in my airway as I have aged and probably lead to my chronic fatigue developing at age 40, but it’s likely to have been affecting me most of my life. (more…)
Last Updated: 10 December 2022.
When I asked the sleep specialist who diagnosed me with severe obstructive sleep apnea what the cause of my condition was, he said that the muscles in my airway collapse during sleep. The Mayo Clinic, WebMD and Healthline all agree, but in my mind this doesn’t really identify the root cause. So I asked why my airway was too small to tolerate the collapse of the muscles in it, and he replied with: genetics.
I thought that sounded a bit odd given that neither of my parents suffered from obstructive sleep apnea, and as far as I was aware we had no family history of it. One of my siblings has since been diagnosed with it, at least one cousin has it, and I’m pretty sure my mother had it before she died but I wasn’t successful in getting her tested. Nevertheless, at the time I was determined to take my root cause analysis further because I thought that knowing the underlying cause would better inform me as to what the best treatment for the condition might be.
I first started this blog to track my progress on The Gupta Program over 10 years ago. At the time, I didn’t realise that I had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, and as a result I didn’t get much out of the program. The program has since been updated for online delivery and expanded in scope to cover more chronic health conditions. In the light of what I now know about my sleep apnea I recently revisited it, so check out my review of The Gupta Program.
If you have had a polysomnograph (also known as a sleep study) to exclude the possibility that you have obstructive sleep apnea, have been checked thoroughly by your doctor for the myriad of other potential causes of chronic fatigue, sought a second opinion (or ten) and been diagnosed with a chronic health condition like CFS/ME, The Gupta Program may help you recover.
Several dentists, a world-renowned orthodontist and a sleep scientist have all told me that the tooth extractions and retractive orthodontic work I had done at age 13 is the likely cause of my underdeveloped jaws and resulting obstructive sleep apnea. It has left inadequate space in my mouth for my tongue which has nowhere to go during sleep but backwards, blocking my airway. I now believe this is what has devastated my health, caused my chronic fatigue and profoundly impacted my life over the last 12 years, and perhaps even longer.
However, the connection between orthodontic extractions and obstructive sleep apnea is apparently controversial amongst orthodontists. I had no idea that I had sleep apnea until it was diagnosed a couple of years ago after a polysomnograph that my sleep specialist almost didn’t recommend given my lack of recognised risk factors. It seems that sleep specialists are also unaware that orthodontic extractions are a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea.
I’ve just passed seven months using CPAP, so here’s an update. It took a while for my nose to stop hurting when I first started using it, and fortunately Chris Kelly from AER Healthcare recommended I try paw paw ointment, which turned out to be a lifesaver. As a result, my compliance over the period has been over 98%. Here’s my AHI overview during that time as reported by OSCAR:
My AHI results using CPAP for 7 months
Relevant quotes from scientific papers as of 28 December 2019.
The studies below indicate that palate expansion usually improves nasal airway resistance.
Since palate expansion has historically only been successful with children or young adolescents, most of the studies are on them. SARME, MARPE and DOME have made palate expansion possible in adults but there are less studies available as the techniques haven’t been in use anywhere near as long. The studies that are available indicate that even mature adults can derive similar improvements in nasal airway resistance to those historically documented in children. (more…)
I first came across The Gupta Program (affiliate link) a little over ten years ago when I had been ill with a mysterious flu-like illness that left me severely fatigued for years. I bought the program and started this blog to track my progress. At the time, the program was delivered on DVDs. Last year Ashok and his team released an updated version delivered online and agreed to give me access so I could review it. I’m an affiliate so I earn a commission if you buy the program by following any of the links on this blog but I’m going to be as objective as I can in this review. (more…)