Tomed SomnoGuard® SP Soft

I have slight sleep apnoea and have previously used CPAP for about 5 years but never got on well with it. My hospital consultant suggested I tried a MAD device. The SomnoGuard device has certainly stopped me snoring – so my wife tells me – so its a winner there. It takes a few days to get used to having something in the mouth for a full night but after about a fortnight no problem. I have no hesitation in recommending the SomnoGuard to other sufferers.

Well, it does work and that’s the main thing. It’s not nice to have a mouth full of plastic but you do get quite used to it. I have to use a chin strap with the guard as occasionally my mouth opens in the night. I found it quite difficult to attach and remove the extension strips. I am thinking of upgrading to the more expensive but less intrusive version.

I much prefer this to my old Tomed SomnoGuard AP, which had a screw and which I found hard to breath through. The Tomed SomnoGuard SP Soft is much more flexible in my mouth and easier to breath through. But both are effective at reducing my snoring when I use them. The problem does not disappear entirely, but my wife finds my snoring much better than normal – if I keep it in all night! These devices aren’t 100% perfect – I wish I didn’t need one in my mouth. But I do need one. And if I use it all night I get a better night’s sleep, my wife gets a better night’s sleep, and I am far less likely to have to go to the spare bedroom to avoid keeping her awake.So getting one of these devices is money well spent.

A bit of background: I recorded my snoring using a free app on my iPad to check that I wasn’t showing signs of sleep apnea. The tests on this website weren’t totally conclusive as the result was mixed causes. I tried a variety of the less expensive solutions, e.g. Nasal strips, but they didn’t help. The nasal strips just sprang off my nose, I think they must be designed for larger men’s noses. Then I paid to see a consultant who said the options were an operation costing about £4000 which should reduce the snoring by about 75% but would then gradually become less effective, or have a mouth guard fitted, which he assured me would work.I decided to go down the DIY route, especially as we were going on an expensive holiday quite soon. I found the video showing how to fit the guard very helpful, even though it was for a slightly different product. I perhaps wasn’t brave enough when cutting off the excess material, but it has been ok.It has worked well for me. My partner will sleep through anything for the first part of the night, so I just put it in when I get up for the toilet, usually about 3am. It didn’t take too long to get used to but I’m not so keen on the dribbling. The worst bit is taking it in and out of my mouth as it is quite large. I feel quite lucky that I only need to wear it for part of the night, so I can still have a drink of water when I get up for the toilet and it doesn’t pull on my teeth as much. I’ve been using it for about 6 months now.A word of caution, when I first put the little bars on, I didn’t realise that there are two sets of different sizes so I ended up putting a different length bar on each side initially. Good luck!

Very expensive for what it is, but this device has worked fantastically well for me so the extra price has been worth paying. I used to snore badly and suffered from interrupted breathing in my sleep leading to daytime headaches, sleepiness at work and very poor concentration. Despite this I did not score highly enough on my GP’s sleep apnoea test to be referred to a sleep clinic. So I tried this. For me it was an absolute requirement to be able to breathe through my mouth, so I did not try any of the cheaper alternatives. It took a while to get used to, but from the start I stopped snoring and slept properly, so that life during the day has been transformed. After nearly a year the device is still in good shape.