Sleep Comfort Care Pad, A product review by Tracy R. Nasca

February 9, 2010

As an owner of Talk About Sleep and a 20 year bilevel user, I am frequently asked to trial new products for the sleep apnea patient. It’s a fun part of my job and I take the role of guinea pig seriously. I try to spend at least 3 consecutive nights trialing a product to make sure I am using it properly and to give it my best shot. The down side is that some products just don’t work for me and I end up with severe sleep deprivation! I try to turn negatives in to positives so I consider the resulting sleep deprivation as my little reminder of how that feels. This helps me relate to the sleepy patients I interact with.

I consider it a privilege and actually feel a responsibility to be well informed about all of the CPAP equipment and accessories that are available to patients. This gives me firsthand knowledge when I speak to patients and medical professionals. I can opine from personal experience.

Most who send products know of my reputation for brutal honesty. Feedback received is not always what they want to hear. However, a negative review might send them back to the drawing board to improve their design. I don’t get paid for my guinea pig service so there is no temptation for me to do anything but tell the truth from my perspective. I like that; it keeps things simple and honest.

I actually like a lot of the products I am asked to trial and am happy to have the manufacturers use my name as a testimonial. Every now and again, I find a product that really WOWS me and that’s what the subject of this article is about!

Sleep Comfort Care Pad

I got a call to trial the Sleep Comfort Care Pad. Before I received it in the mail, I looked at it online. It was a strange looking thing and it intrigued me. It’s a gel pad that lays on the face and across the nose bridge; a cushion of sorts between the skin and the nasal mask. Its purpose is to reduce or eliminate skin irritation, nose bridge sores and mask leak up in to the eye area. This made me sit up straight in my chair. It was kind of a “holy cow” moment for me and I thought – man, if this works, it will be the answer to the prayers of many a cpap user who struggle with these common problems…my common problems.

I received the pad (both sizes offered) in the mail the next day. When I opened the box and took out the pad, I was surprised. It felt like an oily gummy bear! I found myself feeling it over and over, not wanting to let it go and trying to figure out what the heck it was made of! I looked closely at the design and thought, “of course, how simple, why didn’t I think of that”! IF ONLY IT WORKS!

I couldn’t resist the temptation to try it, so rather than waiting for nightfall and bedtime, went straight for my bilevel. Now, many of you know I use a nasal pillow mask primarily because I have a narrow nose bridge and cannot comfortably use a traditional nasal mask. I am the patient who had the nose bridge cuts and sores, the mask leak in to the eye area – the specific issues this Sleep Comfort Care Pad is supposed to resolve.

I went to the web site www.sleepcomfortcaresystem.com and watched the video which clearly showed how to use it. I have a drawer full of nasal and full face masks from ResMed, Respironics and Fisher&Paykel. I pulled one out to use. I laid the Comfort Pad properly on my face and then the mask, checking to make sure it was seated just right. I turned on machine and hopped in to bed. No leak. Could it be this easy? I decided to try another mask brand. Same result, no leak. Ok, this is too easy, I’ll try a full face mask. I used 3 different full face mask and all were leak free. My skeptical side jumped up and I wondered how it would work at night while I am really sleeping and changing positions. That test would have to wait a few hours. I found myself thinking about this Pad for the rest of the day, conjuring up ways to sabotage it. I wanted so badly for it to work but I had to trial it in as many worst case scenarios as I could think of. It would not get my stamp of approval unless it really worked, for me. I don’t give a “thumbs up” easily.

When night time came, I chose the worst mask I could think of for my short face and narrow upper lip; the one that leaks like a sieve from top, bottom and sides. I chose the small Comfort Care Pad, washed it, patted it dry and laid it over my nose bridge and across my face. On went the mask, off went the lights and I fell asleep after tossing and turning from left to right side several times. I have Restless Legs Syndrome so this is my normal. About an hour later, I awakened because the Pad had slipped up in to my eye area. Ah, so it’s NOT PERFECT. I tried to reposition it in the dark without success. I got up and went to the bathroom mirror. I wet the Pad, patted it dry and paid more attention to how and where I placed it on my face. I did not want to repeat this over and over all night long. I was committed to trialing this product fairly, but I was having negative thoughts. I was sleepy and impatient.

Another hour went by and again, I had to get up and return to the bathroom mirror. I decided to try the size large Pad. It seemed like overkill to me, but it worked and I slept comfortably for the rest of the night without awakening. In the morning, when I removed the pad, there were slight but acceptable marks on my face from both the pad and the mask straps. They both disappeared after my face washing ritual and morning shower. I was pleased.

I really wanted to make the size small Pad work, so on night 2 I tried it again. I carefully summed up my face and positioned the Pad lower on my nose bridge so that the sides of the Pad were as far away from the under eye area as possible. Voila! A successful night two with no awakenings! I decided to really make a project out of this trial and so I committed to using the Comfort Care Pad with as many different mask brands and styles as I could. It was exciting to trial a product that I really felt was revolutionary! Over a period of 6 weeks, I used the Pads with nearly every mask in my arsenal and all with success.

No product is perfect and no product works for every single person. There was a learning curve for me and it had to do with placement of the Pad on the face to keep it away from the under eye area. It was easy to resolve. I highly recommend the Sleep Comfort Care Pad as a simple and effective aid to resolve leak, facial pressure point soreness and nose bridge irritation. This is one product that performs as advertised! Lastly, the added bonus is that it is so inexpensive at $14.99 that there is little risk in trying it! Did I mention it’s insurance reimbursable using HCPCS code #A7032? It doesn’t get any better than that!