In my opinion, Vivos also partly falls into the same wordplay that SA criticized sleep centers for. However, I do agree with the article’s claims about wolves in doctors’ clothing. At least in Finland, these sleep-related issues have only recently gained prominence, primarily driven by sleep apnea. Nevertheless, I believe it’s worthwhile to undergo a sleep study first to then engage in a fact-based discussion. Vivos also seems to require some research as a foundation, even though the approach is from a dentist’s perspective. An interesting one at that.
Here, the effect seems to be somewhat different from a typical splint; this one goes on the upper teeth and aims to create space there (palatal expansion). The normal splints I’m aware of only try to push the lower jaw forward to keep the throat open. You can all try to snore while awake by pushing your tongue out of your mouth as far as possible, compared to your normal mouth position or with your jaw pulled back. It mentioned underdeveloped jaws, but it didn’t answer why 80% of people in modern times have underdeveloped jaws.
The cure would then also be based on something like that. It is genuinely an interesting method, and I do hope it works.
However, I think that marketing talk should partly be taken with a grain of salt.
Firstly, because, as has already been mentioned here, these splints have a significantly different customer group compared to CPAP. Since these are for people with mild to moderate sleep apnea, it somewhat includes the theory that recovery is still possible – meaning it acts preventively.
In Finland, a dentist-designed, jaw-advancing splint could be used as a treatment for mild cases (though it doesn’t seem to be used much), but I recall that moderate cases are most often treated with a CPAP device. Recovery from these forms would thus occur regardless of the treatment, for example, if sleep apnea makes you so tired that you can no longer pay attention to your lifestyle. This, however, already assumes you are overweight – which also doesn’t account for 100% of sleep apnea cases, and especially at this point, Vivos might come into the spotlight as the only treatment. In any case, severe sleep apnea is, as I understand it, already such that one might not even fully recover from it when tissues may have already stretched, and the only treatment is practically CPAP, unless surgeries are still performed somewhere. The Vivos people have probably accepted that too, but that’s why the comparison, for example, that CPAP is for life and Vivos is not, is not entirely airtight in my opinion.
CPAP problems are mainly related to mask incompatibility or incorrect oxygen flow; it’s worth testing all options before giving up completely.
It was perhaps a bit of a stream of consciousness; I don’t work in healthcare but have followed it closely. So there might be minor factual errors in places. It sometimes gets a little irritating when a perfectly valid, but perhaps not yet established, medical direction is given a sometimes even humbug-like image, and all sorts of quacks try to push through with their remedies. This, however, is presumably not one of those.