TREATMENT
What's the difference between a "mild" chamber and a real one?
Asked by Anonymous · answered July 2026
O₂
Pacific Hyperbarics care team
Answer
Pressure is the whole difference. Clinical HBOT uses 100% oxygen at 2.0–3.0 ATA — that's the dose studied in the medical literature. Soft-sided "mild" chambers reach only about 1.3 ATA, usually on regular air, delivering a small fraction of that oxygen dose. Mild chambers can be a reasonable wellness product, but they are not equivalent to clinical HBOT and shouldn't be sold as treatment for medical conditions. Two questions cut through the marketing: what pressure, and what gas?
Educational information, not medical advice. Individual cases differ — talk to a qualified physician about yours.