A pilot study to compare patient perception of obstructive sleep apnea treatment with CPAP or appliance therapy

Statement of problem The continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device yields optimum results in treating mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However it may be bulky, noisy, and difficult to sleep with for the patient. Mandibular advancement devices (MAD) have shown better compliance but at the expense of lesser efficiency. Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the patient's posttreatment subjective perception of the effectiveness of 2 common treatments of OSA. Material and methods Thirty-two patients diagnosed with OSA filled out the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Berlin Sleep Quality Questionnaire before treatment and again at 4 to 6 weeks after treatment. Two groups were formed (n=16 each); one group was treated with MAD and the other with CPAP. The data obtained were recorded and compared with the Mann Whitney U test (between groups) and the Wilcoxon signed rank test (within groups) (α=.05). Results The analysis showed that the participants perceived significant posttreatment improvement ( P