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Dexcom One vs Libre 2
- Thread starter Jas_99
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Lucyr
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- Type 1
The answer will be different for every person. I’ve used both and can answer questions but the criteria for ‘best’ will be different for you than for me.
Pumper_Sue
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Dexcom you do not need to scan 🙂
rebrascora
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Libre works really well for me but I have no experience of the Dexcom.
Why not apply for the free 14 day Freestyle Libre trial and see how it works for you. I know you will have nothing to compare it to other than the occasional finger prick, but it will give you an idea of whether it works well for you or not. The drawback of the Dexcom is that it is not compatible with as many phones as Libre, but the software may be more reliable. I believe some people have commented that the user interface is not as good as the Libre though.
Sometimes it just comes down to body chemistry and the only way to know is to try it. It is however important to understand the limitations of these systems and to know when you need to figer prick to double check the readings they give you. ie. False compression lows during the night from lying on the sensor etc. Many of us also apply each sensor a day before we activate it because sometimes our bodies can have a short term reaction to a foreign body being fired into our tissue and it takes a few hours or more for that reaction to subside and the readings it takes to normalize.
@Pumper_Sue makes a valid point that Dexcom One is a full CGM sending readings to your phone or receiver directly whereas Libre is a Flash GM requiring you to scan the sensor to get readings although the readings are regularly sampled and stored in the sensor and transferred when you scan, so the same amount of data, but you need to scan to get it. For me I can't see a huge benefit in this as scanning is very easy but it may be more useful for others. The Libre can however be used with unofficial apps which convert it to a real time CGM and display readings without scanning.
Good luck making your decision but I am sure that if you come across problems with the system you choose, you will be able to get your prescription changed although it may take a few weeks or months to achieve that.
Why not apply for the free 14 day Freestyle Libre trial and see how it works for you. I know you will have nothing to compare it to other than the occasional finger prick, but it will give you an idea of whether it works well for you or not. The drawback of the Dexcom is that it is not compatible with as many phones as Libre, but the software may be more reliable. I believe some people have commented that the user interface is not as good as the Libre though.
Sometimes it just comes down to body chemistry and the only way to know is to try it. It is however important to understand the limitations of these systems and to know when you need to figer prick to double check the readings they give you. ie. False compression lows during the night from lying on the sensor etc. Many of us also apply each sensor a day before we activate it because sometimes our bodies can have a short term reaction to a foreign body being fired into our tissue and it takes a few hours or more for that reaction to subside and the readings it takes to normalize.
@Pumper_Sue makes a valid point that Dexcom One is a full CGM sending readings to your phone or receiver directly whereas Libre is a Flash GM requiring you to scan the sensor to get readings although the readings are regularly sampled and stored in the sensor and transferred when you scan, so the same amount of data, but you need to scan to get it. For me I can't see a huge benefit in this as scanning is very easy but it may be more useful for others. The Libre can however be used with unofficial apps which convert it to a real time CGM and display readings without scanning.
Good luck making your decision but I am sure that if you come across problems with the system you choose, you will be able to get your prescription changed although it may take a few weeks or months to achieve that.
Dexcom is usually stated to be "the best". At least they have been producing CGMs for longer than Abbott.
HOwever, I have experience of both (and other CGMs) and found the Dexcom worse for me.
As @Lucyr suggests, the question should not be "what is THE best CGM?" but "what is the best CGM FOR ME?"
And without trying them ... and including time to learn their foibles ... no one will know.
HOwever, I have experience of both (and other CGMs) and found the Dexcom worse for me.
As @Lucyr suggests, the question should not be "what is THE best CGM?" but "what is the best CGM FOR ME?"
And without trying them ... and including time to learn their foibles ... no one will know.
Proud to be erratic
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I had Libre 2 for over 2 years, using both their reader and a smart phone. I had multiple failures with Libre, at first thinking it was poor tech from Libre. But over the 2 years I concluded it was "me" causing the problem - my body just didn't seem to like having he sensor; so while many others had reasonable or great success with Libre, I had early sensor failures and interstitial readings well adrift of actual BG when the sensor didn't fail. But, despite this, I persisted. I appreciated being able to get a sense of what was happening without a huge number of daily finger pricks (I always had to test before meals for corrections and reassurance before finalising my bolus doses). I did find the trend arrows were very reliable, even when the readings were well adrift.
Earlier this year I finally switched to Dexcom One. The Dexcom reliability has been better - but not perfect and the readings are closer, but still up to 2 mmol/L above. As with Libre the trend arrows are fine.
Libre 2 requires you to scan every time you want a reading; unless you add an unofficial app, such as Diabox (android). Then Libre provides a genuine teal time CGM and for me it even displays my BG on my sleeping phone. Having any CGM is real progress, but with a continuous display on a sleeping phone makes that a huge game changer. Dexcom sends to my phone every 5 mins without scanning; but whenever my phone times out and sleeps, then that Dexcom reading is no longer displayed and so NOT ONLY do I need to wake my phone but I also have to reopen the Dexcom app, which seems to also sleep while my phone is sleeping. I have made endless searches in settings trying to find a way of improving this.
A libre sensor lasts 14 days and that sensor is also its own transmitter. A Dexcom sensor only last 10 days and each sensor needs a transmitter to relay that reading; the transmitter lasts 90 days, but this means it will be moved 9 times for each 10 day sensor. This is not the end of the world, but does mean Dexcom sensor changes are more frequent than Libre and the combined sensor with the transmitter on top is a lot more bulky than Libre.
The Libre app allows you to add data such as carbs eaten and insulin taken, as well as your own specific note; whereas the Dexcom app doesn't do this at all. The reports from the Dexcom One app are pretty limited; I can't look back at yesterday's BG behaviour on the Dexcom One app.
Overall the continuous Dexcom One readings, along with the improved relationship between Dexcom and actual BG makes Dexcom One better for me. But if Libre 2 and my body had got along better together, then Libre 2 in conjunction with the unofficial Diabox app would have been better for me. Neither delivers what they might or could do, which I think is a shame.
There is a separate reader (receiver) for Dexcom One which costs £60 ans is NOT currently obtainable on prescription. It seems that there are far fewer phones that are compatible with Dexcom One.
Earlier this year I finally switched to Dexcom One. The Dexcom reliability has been better - but not perfect and the readings are closer, but still up to 2 mmol/L above. As with Libre the trend arrows are fine.
Libre 2 requires you to scan every time you want a reading; unless you add an unofficial app, such as Diabox (android). Then Libre provides a genuine teal time CGM and for me it even displays my BG on my sleeping phone. Having any CGM is real progress, but with a continuous display on a sleeping phone makes that a huge game changer. Dexcom sends to my phone every 5 mins without scanning; but whenever my phone times out and sleeps, then that Dexcom reading is no longer displayed and so NOT ONLY do I need to wake my phone but I also have to reopen the Dexcom app, which seems to also sleep while my phone is sleeping. I have made endless searches in settings trying to find a way of improving this.
A libre sensor lasts 14 days and that sensor is also its own transmitter. A Dexcom sensor only last 10 days and each sensor needs a transmitter to relay that reading; the transmitter lasts 90 days, but this means it will be moved 9 times for each 10 day sensor. This is not the end of the world, but does mean Dexcom sensor changes are more frequent than Libre and the combined sensor with the transmitter on top is a lot more bulky than Libre.
The Libre app allows you to add data such as carbs eaten and insulin taken, as well as your own specific note; whereas the Dexcom app doesn't do this at all. The reports from the Dexcom One app are pretty limited; I can't look back at yesterday's BG behaviour on the Dexcom One app.
Overall the continuous Dexcom One readings, along with the improved relationship between Dexcom and actual BG makes Dexcom One better for me. But if Libre 2 and my body had got along better together, then Libre 2 in conjunction with the unofficial Diabox app would have been better for me. Neither delivers what they might or could do, which I think is a shame.
There is a separate reader (receiver) for Dexcom One which costs £60 ans is NOT currently obtainable on prescription. It seems that there are far fewer phones that are compatible with Dexcom One.
Lucyr
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- Type 1
You can do this on the clarity app, but it’s just not as smooth as the libre app since you need the two apps for dexcom and one for libre
Proud to be erratic
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I have never had an iPhone, so that's a new world waiting for me to explore ..... if I cross a threshold that I'm not keen to cross!!
Bruce Stephens
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- Type 1
There are options for Android phones too (if you have one of those).
Proud to be erratic
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I'm an android user through and through and currently on aSamsung A52. With Libre 2 I used the Diabox app which I found to be extremely good, although it did take a bit of setting up; but once Diabox was fully working I found the continuous display fantastic and the numerous selection of alerts (alarms) with very customisable sounds appropriate to each type of alert have been excellent. My D can be very brittle, can crash from 10 to 4 very quickly and having alerts that tell me when this brittleness is "playing" has saved me from many a hypo.
With Dexcom 2 the alerts are a little better for me, but the business of my phone sleeping after 10 mins and the app following suit is tedious. The alert still sound, but waking the phone and app is time consuming. I am using Sugarmate, but only seems to be available for me from my Google browser and it won't live stream from Dexcom One: all readings are lagging between 10 mins to an hour. Currently, there aren't enough hours in the day to systematically explore alternatives - which I know is stupid on my part because time invested now should definitely help me subsequently.
Because I don't find Dex One particularly accurate (but much better than Libre 2) I've promised myself that I will self-fund Dex G7 for 3 months once my current Dex One transmitter ends and see if that is better That will coincide with after we've completed our house sale and move, when I will have more time (we are going to cohabit with our daughter and son-in-law for 6 months - so no moving in responsibilities, until they move out!).
After using the Dexcom G6 for four years and loving it, I tried the ONE and found it so inaccurate that I stopped using it. Like @Proud to be erratic I've been self-funding the G7 for a couple of months now and it's superb. Even though the cost is a struggle, it's totally worth the money.
Sally71
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We have to use G6 because that one talks to the pump, so we can’t use G7 until Tandem catch up and make the pump compatible with it! As long as we can get one or the other that’s fine, G6 is working perfectly well for us at the moment. Dexcom One won’t link with pumps so haven’t tried that either.
Tdm
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It does seem rather ramdom, doesn't it?
@Tdm LOL - well yes. If I was a cynical old man I might say that the G7 is a brand new product and is totally awesome, and the ONE might be the G6s that go down the production line and fail the quality tests, and/or the ONE is the G6 with nerfed functionality and nerfed accuracy to make the price lower for the NHS. From the outset I was getting MARDs of 30% with the ONE. I get around 5% with the G7.
I understand that Dexcom is a commercial organistion (I think it's part owned by Alphabet) and needs money for research. I suppose if the ONE was a good as the G7 then why would anyone buy the G7?
When I was diagnosed T1 in 1971, the NHS would supply metal and glass syringes and if you wanted sharp needles you had to buy the disposal type. I think this is the same - decent CGM will become fully funded soon (I hope).
For me though, the G7 is the best thing ever and I wouldn't be without it. I'm lucky that i can afford it though, not everyone can.
I understand that Dexcom is a commercial organistion (I think it's part owned by Alphabet) and needs money for research. I suppose if the ONE was a good as the G7 then why would anyone buy the G7?
When I was diagnosed T1 in 1971, the NHS would supply metal and glass syringes and if you wanted sharp needles you had to buy the disposal type. I think this is the same - decent CGM will become fully funded soon (I hope).
For me though, the G7 is the best thing ever and I wouldn't be without it. I'm lucky that i can afford it though, not everyone can.
@Proud to be erratic have you looked at xDrip+?
I used it for years with my Libre 1 and Libre 2. It was a little finicky to set up but most of that was to hijack the Bluetooth signal for the Libre alarms. However, it was written for Dexcom and the support for Dexcom was much better than Libre and should be easier to set up. I do not know if it works for Dexcom ONE but I am pretty sure it supports the G7.
And the Phone app user interface is much much much better than the Dexcom app.
I used it for years with my Libre 1 and Libre 2. It was a little finicky to set up but most of that was to hijack the Bluetooth signal for the Libre alarms. However, it was written for Dexcom and the support for Dexcom was much better than Libre and should be easier to set up. I do not know if it works for Dexcom ONE but I am pretty sure it supports the G7.
And the Phone app user interface is much much much better than the Dexcom app.
Proud to be erratic
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Thank you @helli, I haven't explored xDrip+ - YET.
The timing of this transition from L2 to Dex One has come at a busy moment in our lives. We've sold our house and are downsizing, so although the final move date is not finalised we're at full steam ahead for a nominal +/- 1 July completion and been flat-out organising ourselves for that target move date. Also, despite Dexcom One sensors are now finally on the BOB ICS fomulary, the 90 day transmitters are still not listed! So if that doesn't change before 30 May, I'm facing having to revert to Libre 2 (I have 2 sensors still) before we move or start my self-funding of G7 early; frankly it's been a battle to coax the system to sort out its internal bureaucracy and catch up with the 2022 revised NICE Guidance and I don't have time to spare for more chasing the BOB ICS, until after we've moved.
But I'm grateful to you for the extra detail about xDrip+ and its relevance to Dexcom. I need to improve what I currently do and because after moving we're house-sharing with our daughter and son-in-law for 6 months before they move out into their renovated new home, I know that once we've moved there will be time (but not space!!) to return to this bureaucracy problem. I will still be under the BOB ICS in the next house; so they'll still get to appreciate my pestering.
I contacted Dexcom about the ONE sensor issue when I was using it - pharmacies know that they are able to provie one transmitter with nine sensors - so just ask your pharmacist. i did read that since last month the ONE transmitter is on the GP prescription list so might even be resolved by now
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