8
votes
Nose dilators
Has anybody tried these? I just ordered a Silent Mammoth... which is essentially a coat hanger bent all fancy. It arrives in a few days.
Anyway, anybody have any experience with these sorts of things? I went with this one purely because its metal and I don't want to have some ten-use plastic to recycle if this whole thing leads to improvement.
I don't have sleep apnea but I do think my cute button nose could use a little opening. :)
I have mild snoring and have used both nasal strips and nasal dilators. I've used Breathe Rite strips and Mute dilators.
Nasal dilators are more effective in my experience (not that nasal strips aren't effective, they are, just not as much as a properly fitted dilator).
Pros and cons.
Nasal strips.
Pros:
more comfortable in my experience
no cleaning involved (disposable/single use) other than washing the skin on your nose
Cons:
single use
somewhat less effective than dilators
Nasal dilators.
Pros:
more effective at widening the nasal passage and making breathing easier / alleviating snoring
reusable
Cons:
less comfortable (I actually had nosebleeds and cut the bridge of my nose when I started using them - that DID resolve later, but still, not great)
cleaning involved (have to clean after every use)
depending on material, they can get to the point where you just need to throw it away (plastic models - they end up as bacterial breeding grounds)
I started with strips, switched to dilators for a while, but now I'm back to strips. In part my switch back is because I'm losing weight (this reduces my snoring issues) and because I had a bunch of them left so they were a sunk-cost.
congrats on the weight loss! i lost around 30 or 40 lbs twelve years ago now and have kept it off (6’4” 225 and i’m 175 now) — i definitely snored when i was heavier. keep it up :)
one other reason i opted for metal over plastic is the potential for sharp edges like that.
this whole corner of the market feels like a scam.
do you meditate at all? if so, and if you’re stripped-up while meditating, do you notice a difference?
I work with a guy that basically is wearing breath right strips permanently now because of his nose issues... I'm assuming he isn't aware of these things or maybe he'd be using one. Let me know how it goes and maybe I'll suggest it to him.
definitely will do. those strips are pretty expensive unless he’s got a good hack for giving them new life. there are some magnetic ones, but i’m not sure if those are reusable or not.
so much waste in this industry. i’m surprised there isn’t a semipermanent insert for this.
Boy if this isn’t a concept I’m uncomfortable with! I’m categorically against installing things that you insert into your body that a doctor has not prescribed, and putting things into your airways is particularly alarming. So my recommendation is to ask the doctor which one they recommend.
The real issue here is that breathing is a bit more complex than just the outside part of your nose and if you are snoring that is potentially a symptom of sleep apnea, a condition which raises your risks for a number of deadly diseases. So really, do see your doctor about it!
oh yeah, this is purely to open my nostrils a bit. i don’t snore or anything, though.
i tried a breathe right strip a few weeks ago and really liked it, but i don’t want that glue on my skin.
i’ll hit up my doc, actually — this might be covered :) good call.
Can I ask why you want to open your nostrils despite no issues breathing or sleeping? It seems like they're doing fine. It would seem even the low risk of introducing germs into your nostrils or scratching the inside of your nose would outweigh any possible "wider nostril" benefit?
Please definitely talk to your doc, this feels like risk for no reward, even if just a minor one