Dry mouth with dreamwear mouth mask

[Lycanthrope]

Many years back I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, but never followed this up by trying a cpap machine. I was used to getting lousy sleep and occasionally (but rarely) waking up with a choking episode as I am a mouth breather.  I also got up twice a night to go to the bathroom, and I had terrible dry mouth. About 5 years ago, I started to tape my mouth shut (with a tiny bit of room at the corners of the mouth). This accomplished several things....  I only was getting up once a night to go to the bathroom, the dry mouth improved and the choking episodes completely stopped. But despite these improvements, I was still getting poor sleep. So earlier this year I completed another sleep study and tried the AirSense 10 with the device that leans against the nose. I also tried the one that covers the nose. These were both tried with taping the mouth shut. The apnea episodes went down, but not drastically and I still felt lousy in the morning. So last week my doctor suggested trying the DreamWear mask that covers the mouth. She explained that I wouldn't have to tape my mouth and the dry mouth should completely clear up.  But I've tried this for 5 nights and my dry mouth is worse than ever. And this leads me to my question....  How would this mouth mask help eliminate the dry mouth issue?  If I don't use any machine or device or tape and go to bed, I will have dry mouth cause I'm a mouth breather and with my mouth open, the air will dry out my mouth, right?   So when I use the mouth mask, my mouth is still open and now more air than ever is shooting into my mouth, so to my logic, I should still be getting dry mouth. Can anyone explain how or why I should not be getting dry mouth with this mouth mask set up?  I just don't understand.  And to my thinking, it makes sense that this set up is giving me the worst dry mouth ever.  Thanks.

[Osiris357]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you need higher humidity. What do you have your humidifier set to?

And if you download OSCAR and post a screenshot the experts might be able to help you further. Just click the word OSCAR. The one after “download”

[Osiris357]

Never mind I just saw you have the heated hose

[Osiris357]

I have the ClimateLine also. I have mine set in manual mode with the humidity set at 5 and hose temp on 86F. I had it on 6 but I got rain out. 5 is my happy medium. That should work for you. When the hose is set for auto the results are similar humidity wise to having the humidity on 6 without the heated hose but you end up with water on your face and in your hose. Auto is good for most but you sound like myself and need just a little more. So set the humidifier to 5 and hose temp to 86F or 30C and see how that goes for you

[Lycanthrope]

Well I'm new to all this and everything suggested so far is way over my head. I never was told about humidity settings, and regarding OSCAR. I had a cousin named OSCAR who died about 4 years ago and I haven't spoken to his family since.  I do appreciate this info and I'll call my doctors office within the next few days to explain your recommendation and voice the same complaint I'm stating here. I'll report back to the forum once I get a handle on this and hopefully make the adjustments your suggesting. Thanks again.

[renoir]

I used the Dreamware mask and could not solve the dry mouth problem. One night I tried wearing it and taping my mouth, but I couldn't get past the amount of stuff on my face and quit early in the night.
Now I have settled on the F20 airtouch (memory foam). I find it relatively comfortable and the leaks are manageable. The dry mouth persists. It's what wakes me up. My plan is to experiment with mouth taping again. Because there's a lot more room in the F20, I don't think I will be as freaked out with the tape. I might even try just a small piece and partially tape it. If there is a power failure, I can easily breathe through just my mouth with the F20.
There are reports in various forums of FF mask users mouth taping, and they seem happy.

[DaveL]

Welcome to the forum!
Consider getting a humidifier as someone suggested here. I have a humidifier and it helps me. So does my heated hose. And finally, someone here suggested that I should get a hanger to support my hose. That helps me a lot. When I move in bed I don't pull the mask on my face anymore, and I sleep better because of it.

Your pressure is very low...is that what the sleep clinic advised you to set?

I had a dreamwear mask for quite a while. It was very comfortable for me. I eventually replaced it with a nasal mask because it suited me better.

[Osiris357]

You don’t need to pay a doctor to tell you how to adjust your humidity. Just push the knob and the menu will come up. Very easy to do.

We all have access to the humidity setting without going into the clinicians menu

[Lycanthrope]

Osiris357... Thanks for that link to OSCAR. I'll check it out later but it looks to be very informative. I'll try and adjust that humidity tonight.

DaveL... Yes, the Dr. suggested level 3 and to be honest, even 3 seems quite forceful, probably cause this is all new to me. The one thing that has surprised me is that all 3 masks I've used... the dreamwear, the one that leans against the nose and the nose mask all easy to wear without any claustrophobic feeling.

Renoir.... I fear that I may have the same issue with continuing dry mouth with the dreamwerar, we'll see. But if you tape your mouth, it wouldn't make any sense to use the dreamwear anymore, right? The only reason I tried it is because of the wonderful promised result of being able to mouth breathe and not have any dry mouth, and as of the moment, this is an unfulfilled promise. Last night I said to hell with all of this, and just taped my mouth and went to sleep with no cpaps or masks and got a decent nights sleep (with no dry mouth, of course). I'll continue with the dreamwear for a while longer (with that humidity adjustment), but I may end up going back to the first unit, the one that leans against your nose. The Dr. said I had much better numbers with that one as opposed to the nose mask. I guess this is a work in progress, with many adjustments, for anyone who starts using cpap machines.

[DaveL]

Osiris357...   Thanks for that link to OSCAR. I'll check it out later but it looks to be very informative. I'll try and adjust that humidity tonight.

DaveL...  Yes, the Dr. suggested level 3 and to be honest, even 3 seems quite forceful, probably cause this is all new to me.  The one thing that has surprised me is that all 3 masks I've used... the dreamwear, the one that leans against the nose and the nose mask all easy to wear without any claustrophobic feeling.  

Renoir....  I fear that I may have the same issue with continuing dry mouth with the dreamwerar, we'll see.  But if you tape your mouth, it wouldn't make any sense to use the dreamwear anymore, right? The only reason I tried it is because of the wonderful promised result of being able to mouth breathe and not have any dry mouth, and as of the moment, this is an unfulfilled promise. Last night I said to hell with all of this, and just taped my mouth and went to sleep with no cpaps or masks and got a decent nights sleep (with no dry mouth, of course).  I'll continue with the dreamwear for a while longer (with that humidity adjustment), but I may end up going back to the first unit, the one that leans against your nose. The Dr. said I had much better numbers with that one as opposed to the nose mask. I guess this is a work in progress, with many adjustments, for anyone who starts using cpap machines.

Hi, I was diagnosed a long while ago.  Severe sleep apnea. I started at 7...I'm at 14 now. (I increased my setting from prescribed 13 to 14, and feel much better having done so.)

I used 3 dreamwear masks. Then I switched to a nasal mask, and it feels more comfortable for me. I'm claustrophobic too. I freak out and take my full face mask off. I've tried about 8 of them recently.
Being claustrophic, I'm ok if I wear a simple nasal mask, and wear some kind of chinstrap with my mask to keep my mouth shut. When I open my mouth the air from my cpap nasal mask doesn't go where it should. It just goes out my mouth. And that doesn't work! 

We all have different needs and different shaped faces so a mask that works for me won't necessarily work for you.

I tape my mouth shut every once in a while. 

I need to keep my mouth shut for my cpap treatment to work. It takes that air pressure to keep my air ways open. I hope I explained this right. I'm new here.
If I could wear a full face mask and not freak out it would be so much simpler. All I would need to do is determine how much pressure I needed with a full face mask. Then I wouldn't need to wear a chinstrap or collar under my jaw, or tape my mouth shut.