Sleep Apnea Treatment Options — Beyond the CPAP

For a lot of people, the conversation about sleep apnea treatment ends at one word: CPAP. 

Your doctor confirms the diagnosis, hands you a referral, and suddenly you're sleeping — or trying to sleep — with a mask strapped to your face and a machine humming on your nightstand. For some people, it works. They adjust, it becomes routine, and their sleep improves. 

But for many others, CPAP is a nightly battle. The mask leaks. The pressure feels suffocating. Wearing it every single night, for the rest of your life, starts to feel impossible. So they stop using it. And the sleep apnea — and everything that comes with it — continues. 

If that sounds familiar, you're not failing at treatment. You may just need a different one. 

Why CPAP isn't the only answer 

CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) remains a widely used and effective treatment for sleep apnea. But compliance is a well-documented challenge — studies consistently show that a significant portion of patients either abandon CPAP altogether or don't use it enough to see real benefit. There's no shame in that. It's not a personal failing. It's a design problem. 

The good news: treatment options have expanded considerably in recent years, and what works best depends on your specific anatomy, the severity of your sleep apnea, your lifestyle, and your health history. Here's a look at what's available. 

Lifestyle changes 

For people with mild sleep apnea, certain lifestyle adjustments can meaningfully reduce symptoms — and sometimes resolve them entirely. 

Losing weight, if applicable, is one of the most effective interventions. Even a 10% reduction in body weight can significantly decrease the number of apnea events per night. Avoiding alcohol and sedatives before bed, quitting smoking, and sleeping on your side rather than your back can also help. These aren't quick fixes, and they don't work for everyone — but for the right patient, they can reduce or eliminate the need for other treatment. 

Oral appliances 

If your sleep apnea is mild to moderate, a custom-fitted dental device may be worth exploring. These appliances work by repositioning your jaw and tongue during sleep to keep the airway open. They're less intrusive than CPAP, easier to travel with, and most people find them significantly more comfortable. They're not effective for severe sleep apnea, but for the right candidate, they're a legitimate and underutilized option. 

Surgery 

Several surgical procedures can address the structural causes of obstructive sleep apnea — removing tissue from the back of the throat, correcting a deviated septum, or repositioning the jaw. Surgery isn't the right choice for everyone, and outcomes vary. It's typically considered when other treatments haven't worked and when a specific anatomical issue is contributing to the obstruction. 

Inspire therapy 

This is where treatment for sleep apnea has taken its most significant step forward in recent years. 

Inspire therapy is a small implantable device placed under the skin in the chest during a short outpatient procedure. While you sleep, it monitors your breathing and sends gentle signals to the nerve that controls tongue movement — keeping your airway open naturally, without a mask, without a hose, and without any external machine. Before bed, you turn it on with a small handheld remote. 

It's designed specifically for people with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea who haven't been able to tolerate CPAP. Clinical results are strong: patients experience a 79% reduction in sleep apnea events on average, and 91% say Inspire works better for them than CPAP did. 

CoxHealth is the first Inspire Center of Excellence in the western hemisphere — one of only two programs with that designation in the entire United States. Our sleep medicine and surgical teams have guided more patients through Inspire therapy than almost any other program in the country. That experience matters when you're making a decision about an implanted device. 

How do you know which treatment is right for you? 

That's exactly the conversation a sleep medicine consultation is for. The right treatment depends on factors that can only be assessed with a complete picture of your health — your sleep study results, your anatomy, your history with CPAP, and your goals. There isn't a universal answer, and a good sleep medicine team won't pretend there is. 

What we can tell you is that if CPAP hasn't worked for you, that's not the end of the road. It may just be the beginning of finding what actually does.