Treating sleep apnea means making a few key changes to your lifestyle and your sleeping habits, not the least of which is using your oral appliance or CPAP equipment on a nightly basis. This is simple enough when you’re sleeping at home, but what about when you travel? You’ll need to plan ahead to ensure that you’re able to comply with your sleep apnea treatment while you’re on the go. Here are 4 tips for traveling with sleep apnea in Greenfield.
1. When You Fly, Check Airline Guidelines
Airport security has some fairly strict regulations about what you can and can’t take with you onto the plane, and different carriers might give their patients different guidelines. You don’t want to be held up due to the need to bring your sleep apnea treatment with you, so review the guidelines at least two weeks in advance and make the necessary arrangements so that you can bring what you need with you without unnecessary complications.
2. Keep Your Sleep Apnea Treatment with You
There’s always the risk that your luggage will be lost by the time you arrive at your destination. If that happens, then you don’t want to be without your sleep apnea prescription until it’s recovered. Keep your oral appliance or CPAP with you at all times, ideally in your purse, wallet, or a piece of carry-on luggage. In the case of an oral appliance, this ensures that you’ll have your prescription on hand if you want to nap on the plane.
3. Bring Cleaning Products with You
Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you can take a break from good hygiene. Both oral appliances and CPAP equipment need to be cleaned on a regular basis, and you should make sure that you bring the appropriate cleaning products with you. Such products can often only be brought onto the plane in certain sizes and quantities, so check with the airline ahead of time.
4. Be Very Careful While Packing
When you rely on an oral appliance or CPAP while traveling, the last thing you want is to find out it has been damaged after you get to your destination. To avoid this outcome, make sure that you’re packing your prescription properly. For example, if you have an oral appliance, then it should always be in its case when you’re not using or cleaning it.
Sleep apnea doesn’t have to disrupt your travel plans; as long as you prepare ahead of time and take great care in transporting your oral appliance or CPAP machine, you should look forward to plenty of peaceful nights even when you’re sleeping away from home.
About BGH Dental
At BGH Dental, we want every member of your family to feel like a part of our dental family. As such, our experts have made sure to provide a wide variety of treatment options so that they can meet the needs of all of your loved ones. To that end, we provide oral appliances as a solution for sleep apnea. If you think you have a sleep disorder or have concerns about your current treatment, visit our website or call (413) 772-0842.