Case Study – Trevor
Trevor knows a lot about sleep apnea.
Not only does Trevor have sleep apnea, he has also worked in the industry for many years and knows how elusive a “perfect” mask is to find.
Trevor is also a mouth-breather. He normally uses a full-face mask to control the air leaking out of his mouth during sleep. Getting Trevor into a nasal-only mask like the TrueFITTM Custom Mask was a challenge.
When we first met Trevor he was sceptical. After all, he has heard the claims of “improved comfort and perfect fit” from mask manufacturers for years. And each time, he faithfully takes the “newest/latest” mask home to test it. And he always gets the same results.
As he says, “I have spent years struggling with CPAP masks that are almost perfect, but not quite. And it is this 'not quite' that continues to ruin some perfectly good nights of sleep”.
Let’s face it, CPAP masks have come a long way. All the research and development that the big manufacturers have poured into mask technology HAS created more comfortable masks. No question about it. They are more comfortable today than ever before.
But is the result really, genuinely comfortable, or just less uncomfortable?
The basic design approach all other mask manufacturers adopt is to have the same mask fit as many different faces as possible. Comfort is down to luck: if your features and the contours of your face just happen to fit into the mask then you get a good result.
If the mask doesn’t work for you, that’s okay too – they have a whole range of different standard masks for you to buy and try! It’s good business!
But who has a standard face? And how much trial and error can you handle before the whole thing becomes too frustrating?
If all our noses, cheeks, jaws and brows were the same, there would be no problem with this approach. But Acurest have been doing this for years and we have never seen two faces that could really, properly fit into the same mask.
So, it was time to change Trevor’s mind. Acurest offered to make a TrueFIT™ Custom Mask for Trevor so that he could experience the difference, and hopefully tell people about it.
So what does he think?
“It fit, perfectly, immediately, with next to no headgear pressure – like a glove. Great fit, very stable (I'm a roller), soft on the face with minimal headgear pressure, no pressure on the bridge of my nose, very easy to clean. And the air relief is so quiet and disperses the air so effectively that I can actually cuddle my partner's back without getting the usual elbow into the ribs”.
I’d say that Trevor gets it now! There is just no way that a standard mask will ever fit your face like a mask that is custom-made to fit. It’s just not possible.
So how did Trevor’s mouth-leak go with the TrueFIT™?
Here’s what he says, “I use a full face mask, and the TrueFIT™ mask is a nasal mask only. I have been using a chin strap with my mask to keep my mouth shut, and have found it works well for me (at 14 to 16cm pressure levels).”
We see this quite a bit. Full-face mask users struggle more than nasal mask users because full-face masks need more strap pressure to create a seal, and are therefore inherently more uncomfortable.
Many of our clients who previously used full-face masks prefer to have the comfort of the nasal TrueFIT™ Custom Mask, and manage the mouth leak with either a chin strap (like Trevor) or by using a small piece of tape.
But overall, I’d say that Trevor is pretty convinced:
“It's the best fit and most overall comfort I have had yet in a CPAP mask”.
I’d hate to be the sales rep for another mask manufacturer that walks in to tell Trevor about the next “perfect” standard mask…..