Mouthpiece success!

Before bed last night I went through the “boil-and-bite” procedure to fit my ..uh, “anti-snoring” mouthpiece to my mouth. I popped the mouthpiece into my mouth right after turning out the light just like the prosthodontist said to do and I waited in the dark to see how long it would take before I hurled it across the room and slept without it.

I clenched my teeth. Hmm, it doesn’t feel bad at all, I thought. I pondered the fit and tried to keep myself from subconsciously smacking it around my mouth when lo and behold I fell sound asleep! Four hours later I briefly awoke to put the blanket on the bed and didn’t even stop to think how my mouthpiece was doing: it was just there. I went back to bed and slept solidly until 7:30 AM, waking giddy and refreshed!

The instruction sheet warned me that it may take a few weeks to feel comfortable wearing it all night and I did it my very first night. I even did some lucid dreaming and some late-morning dreaming, too: stuff I’ve been lacking lately due to my poor sleep. Needless to say, I was impressed! It didn’t even faze me that the mouthpiece isn’t designed to breathe through: I never needed to.

Incredible to think that a $30 piece of plastic could make such a difference, but it certainly seemed to. The big test was whether 3 PM would roll by today without me feeling like I needed a nap. Instead of feeling dozy, I blitzed through my honey-do list and even felt ready for a great bike ride with my family. It certainly seems to be the right track, that’s for sure!

So, yeah, I could buy the one from the prosthodontist and spend $1100. Then I would likely leave it in a hotel room somewhere or have it confiscated once the TSA decides to ban dental appliances and then I’d be out $1100 worth of plastic. Or, I could stick with this $30 SnorBan one and get the same results, albeit a little less comfortably.

Or, I could get a night guard from Sport Guard International (SGI) and get the best of both worlds: a comfortable, custom-fit mouthpiece for $125! I’ll give my SnorBan a few more weeks to see how it fits and talk with the folks at SGI to see if they think their guard will serve this purpose. I’ve got a good idea it will.