I was misdiagnosed with sleep apnea when I actually had a severe, health threatening neurological condition. I went through 2+ years of sleep apnea treatment believing it was the underlying cause; many+ months were spent at this clinic. The doctors here are careless and oblivious. If you are a parent taking your kid here (and you love them) look elsewhere for a more attentive doctor. If you are an adult, struggling with fatigue like I was, go elsewhere. Read on for more details.
At the time I was ~22/23, 6 foot+ tall and 180 pounds. I was in incredible shape, the past year I had ridden over 2,000 miles on Strava and in college I was on the rowing team. Towards the end of 2020 I started to become so tired I couldn't get out of bed. Every morning I woke up it felt like I had taken a fistful of benadryl the night before. I stopped cycling, I stopped doing the things I loved. A sleep study showed 2 OAs between 11PM-4PM; 5 hours of perfect sleep, the last hour before I woke up had 68 events which brought average to 8.2 - poof a diagnosis!
Showing up at the clinic something seemed off; there were TVs playing non-stop advertisements with this doctor for their mouthpiece product. Shouldn't medical devices be driven by direct doctor recommendation and not infomercials? I saw the doctor at this clinic, "Dr." Shah for ~10 minutes for my first appointment. I explained the situation and he mentioned to me that my situation sounds similar to his and that he believed that the mouthpiece would help me greatly. He explained the whole moving the jaw forward etc etc. He left quickly and in came the assistant. This was a young kid and they did some sort of test where they moved my jaw forward in increments and tested throat volume (if I remember right). Every measurement this guy looked at me and said 'wow - this is going to be really good, the difference is huge'. I heard these things; these were medical professionals, I believed them and hearing these things from them reinforced the 'diagnosis' of why I was suddenly suffering so much at the age of 22. They took pictures of my teeth, my jaw, and told me to come back in X months time for the mouthpiece. I stopped looking for answers elsewhere because of these "doctors" beliefs. I believed them, they were doctors and went to medical school.
Over a month later I picked up the mouthpiece, again I think the main doctor came in for 2 seconds to check the fitting; everything else was done by an attendant. They explained the whole thing, one turn per day and then wear the overfitter in the morning for 15-20 minutes to reset the jaw. I was so happy to get this, I looked forward to waking up the next day with energy. I didn't and every day for a month I cranked this mouthpiece and every day went to bed with hope. Every morning I woke up exhausted with no change except jaw pain. My next appointment I started to complain about jaw pain and a gap in my teeth which was forming. I was told that it takes time to adjust and that for the gap in my teeth I needed to wear my retainer and the over fitter and that if I was doing that this wouldn't be happening; newsflash - I was and when she obtained the image of my teeth taken before this mouthpiece itt they were perfect. I was being gaslit at the time and I wasn't made aware of the risks. They made it seem like a 15 minute reset would be fine but here I am over 3 years later writing this review (with mild parkinsons due to the misdiagnosis) a fucked up jaw which is in pain all the time, a bite which doesn't aline and chipped teeth due to this and no recourse. Unfortunately however there are complaints all over the internet for this and you as a reader can be more aware.
Anyways, I just stopped going - It just became too hard. In addition to the fatigue I was waking up with significant pain in my jaw; it hurt a lot. I felt like when I went to the doctors I wasn't being heard. In retrospect this was nothing more than an entire clinic which was outsourcing expensive mouthpieces from a 3rd party supplier and billing the hell out of insurance. Its a doctor's duty to attend to and treat the patient. Looking back I think it was pretty clear I didn't have sleep apnea, these systems were something else but I was just being passed off and my insurance billed. Shame on these people.
3 years later I found out the true cause of my illness and treated it with a trial drug. My vitals had dropped significantly during the 3 year period but with the right treatment there was immediate recovery in my blood work. Unfortunately there was already serious damage done to my body which was irreversible; tremors, visual snow, neuropathy and more.
Shame on this clinic - by gaslighting me with sleep apnea red herrings, they made me overlook real underlying issues and forever changed my life; significantly for the worse. read more