Does anyone use an oral mask? How horrific is the dry mouth?

[Ihaveapnea]

I'm getting some nasal surgery so I'm going to have to switch to an oral mask for about a month. How awful is the dry mouth from the oral mask? If I even open my mouth briefly with a full face mask during the night the dry mouth is terrible so I can't even imagine what an oral mask would be like. Let me know your thoughts.

[Darryl44]

I'm only aware of one oral mask, the F&P Oracle. After trying it for a couple of weeks I had to give it up because I could not get an acceptable leak rate. Despite the fact that my nose is almost completely blocked through allergic rhinitis I was leaking air through my nose. The mask comes with nose plugs and I also tried nose clips. I'm not sure how this would affect you after nasal surgery.

Dry mouth can certainly be a problem, though I would imagine this is an individual thing. I think the instructions actually say the mask must be used with a humidifier. I was able to adjust the humidity so that the dry mouth was not too bad in the morning.

I think you should think carefully about this and consult your Doctors. An oral mask may not be the answer. If you are going to use one I would suggest you try it before your surgery to see that it can be effective for you and that you can tolerate it.

I have found the Amara View very good. This is in fact a full face mask but it sits under the nose rather than covering it entirely. If this is an option for you after surgery you may prefer it and find it more effective.

Best of luck.

[Ihaveapnea]

I'm only aware of one oral mask, the F&P Oracle. After trying it for a couple of weeks I had to give it up because I could not get an acceptable leak rate. Despite the fact that my nose is almost completely blocked through allergic rhinitis I was leaking air through my nose. The mask comes with nose plugs and I also tried nose clips. I'm not sure how this would affect you after nasal surgery.

Dry mouth can certainly be a problem, though I would imagine this is an individual thing. I think the instructions actually say the mask must be used with a humidifier. I was able to adjust the humidity so that the dry mouth was not too bad in the morning.

I think you should think carefully about this and consult your Doctors. An oral mask may not be the answer. If you are going to use one I would suggest you try it before your surgery to see that it can be effective for you and that you can tolerate it.

I have found the Amara View very good. This is in fact a full face mask but it sits under the nose rather than covering it entirely. If this is an option for you after surgery you may prefer it and find it more effective.

Best of luck.

Thanks very much for sharing that experience. I guess I didn't realize that you would have to plug your nose when using the oral mask. Plugging my nose definitely won't be an option for me since I won't be allowed to put any pressure on my nose.

[chill]

Not sure what surgery you are getting or where you can't put pressure on the nose, but I used my F&P Simplus the day of my surgery. And yeah, the dry mouth is not fun.

[Darryl44]

The instructions for the mask talk about only having to do this for a couple of weeks to train you to breath through your mouth. To me this was not a problem. There was something about changing a host attachment if you did not use the clips, but no alternative attachment was packaged with the mask. Instructions for the mask should be available online which may clear things up.

Don't give up on it but do look at it more carefully and discuss with your doctors.

Once again good luck.

[Ihaveapnea]

The instructions for the mask talk about only having to do this for a couple of weeks to train you to breath through your mouth. To me this was not a problem. There was something about changing a host attachment if you did not use the clips, but no alternative attachment was packaged with the mask. Instructions for the mask should be available online which may clear things up.

Don't give up on it but do look at it more carefully and discuss with your doctors.

Once again good luck.

Thanks very much, I appreciate it.

[Goldie54914]

Newbie here, been on cpap/autopap for three years now:
You may want to see if you can use oraljel dry mouth moisturizing gel or use biotene moisturizing spray before you go to bed at night. I do it (I have a full face mask) and it helps me out.

[kwhenrykerr]

I used the Amara View after surgery. It worked

[logansandres]

I'm getting some nasal surgery so I'm going to have to switch to an oral mask for about a month. How awful is the dry mouth from the oral mask? If I even open my mouth briefly with a full face mask during the night the dry mouth is terrible so I can't even imagine what an oral mask would be like. Let me know your thoughts.

I dunno, never really had a dry too terrible, there is some, but is tolerable