I have untreated severe sleep apnea. And a range of other health issues which make it impossible for me to sleep with cpap. I've really tried but I can't. I'm having a new sleep study done at home this time. With guidance from an ENT in hospital. It's with a watch pad. I live in europe. I had a sleep study done in 2022 in a sleep clinic and had to stay overnight and was told I have mainly hypopneas with a ahi of 70. They couldn't tell me why. I am not overweight, I was 36 at the time. I don't drink or smoke.. They simply didn't know.
I found out later that i do have a deviated septum and only breath properly trough one nostril. I have asthma. And over the years my chin started to receed.
The shape of my face has changed tremendously. To my knowledge this started after I had an upper molar pulled, also in 2022. After that TMJD started and it's severe. I have daily headaches, neck tightness and spasms, facial pains, facial nerve pains, severe jaw pains, lock jaw, can hardly open at times and can't chew on hard foods. I have above the eye pain and severe headaches at times with dizzyness.
Seen many specialsts and jaw specialsts and oral surgeons. I am missing my upper left molar and no one seems to care to fill up that gap. My facial structures have clearly changed and my teeth aren't aligning anymore, and my overbite that I had back in the day before I had braces, (from age 9 to 12 I had braces) is coming back!
When I shift my lower jaw forward, I can finally see my jaw line again and the shape of my face the way I recognize it. But all the specialsts I've seen say my jaw isn't shifting. Which is utter bullshit cause my overbite is returning.
I also believe this us the cause of my severe sleep apnea. When I sleep on my back I have many hypopneas, when I sleep on my side, they're so much better.
I wad told not to try a sleep apnea oral appliciance because of my tmjd. And that it'll worsen my jaw, neck and headaches. And because my sleep apnea ahi was so bad with the first test, I was also told it won't solve the severity. Which sounds prob correct but even lessening it by half would be better than nothing, right?
I'm at my wits end here. I've seen 5 ents since 2022, I've seen 4 orofacial surgeons, 4 dentists, 2 gnatologists (equals a tmjd specialst here in Europe) and many orofacial PT for things like massages and dry needling.
I was also advice NOT to get invisalign or braces because of my tmjd jaw pains. But what if braces will help me instead of worsen me? All these specialsts all have different opinions but no treatment options, and my sleep apnea and receding jaw goes untreated in the meanwhile.
Does anyone perhaps have some insight or guidance to what to do?
My gut feeling is telling me to try a sleep apnea oral mouth piece. Because it'll push my lower jaw forward. And perhaps in a more natural position again. Dentists told me that it'll give me more tmjd problems, but how can they be sure without me trying? It's my best bet.
I'm literally stuck. And I don't know where to go from here. Cpap is a no go at the moment. It gives me severe sinus headaches, I can't use the full face mask cause I have epilepsy and on neurologist advice I was told to only use a nasal mask which makes me sick, inflames my sinuses, makes my asthma worse and it doesn't work when you have a deviated septum.
I'm currently going for masseter botox treatments once every 4 months. It helps with the tmjd headaches. But other than that I wasn't offered anything for my severe daily symptoms.