[CPAP] In the beginning, mouth breathing

[retired_guy]

We concluded that I will continue with the nasal pillow mask and see if I can manage to keep my mouth shut or not to be woken up every time my mouth opens. There were not too much leaks after all, so I don't sleep my mouth open. I just open it, wake up, close it and try to get back to sleep. I think I will give it week or two to see if there's improvement, since waking up so many times during the night is not helping. Really considering trying out some chin strap. Any suggestions?

I use Resmed's chinstrap and I don't actually enjoy it all that much. I put a cotton cloth in between the chinstrap and my face and that makes it more tolerable.

Something that was suggested awhile back was to use a sweat band, such as those people like to wear when they run around in circles on a track or something. Me, I prefer to drive... But that's another story.

Anyhow, my wife gave me her sweatband to try. It seems to me to be a good idea. But alas, her sweatband is girl sized and it wouldn't fit me. I do think I'll probably give this a try when I wander into a sports store sometime. The sweatband thing: not the running around in circles thing.

[Peter_C]

dan76,

I used a nasal mask for a year thinking that I was getting a good seal. Well the mask sealed fine but I found out that my mouth did not. I can make the seal fine when I am awake but when asleep, not so much. I tried the chin strap even though I knew that merely keeping my mouth closed was not the answer. I got some improvement but not much. I finally got a good full face mask and my leakage rate is not perfect yet but it is much better - a VERY significant improvement. I am using a bilevel setup at fairly high pressure (20cm/H2O).

PaytonA, You and I have reached the same conclusion about the full face mask. I could probably get good therapy with a nasal mask but I would wake up many times each night to roll back onto my side and close my mouth. I tried chin straps, tongue training, tennis ball sewed to back of shirt, etc. but finally concluded the full face mask is best for me.

I am in the same boat. If I use the Simplus, my AHI is less than 10, and leaks are very controlled, but I get air into my eyes. I bought a new mask the Hybrid by Innomed - a complete waste of $115 bucks - won't even seal for me! I was so mad and disgusted, I went back to my nasal pillows for the last two nights, and my AHI went up to 45 and 59 last night.

I can't afford to keep buying masks to try, but it is plain to see that I need to use a FFM.

[dan76]

4th and 5th night are now history. During the 4th I had to remove the mask in the middle of the night because my nose was too stuffed to really breath well. I was waking up due to to mouth breathing also. This made me a bit pessimistic about how this would pan out. But then 5th night was clearly the best so far. I got sleep fast and woke up only once to wonder about the mask and how I feel about it. No wake ups because of mouth breathing. Seems I am learning.

Even it seemed I got good sleep, I wan not feeling well rested in the morning. This made me wonder if I woke up because of the mask or because I didn't need more sleep.. So I am still waiting if this CPAP thing is going to make any difference and clear my foggy mind or not.

[faizdude]

Question: How would mouth breathing affect leak rate reading, if any? I mean, can you know that you are mouth-breathing from the leak rate or any other data?

[green wings]

That's a very good question, faizdude. I can see periods in my breathing flowrate waveforms where they look like the "expiratory mouth breathing" graph that's shown in Roby Sue's wiki. (next to last graph)

I am not seeing any correlation with my leak data, though. I also don't wake up with a dry mouth.

I have been keeping an eye on how often this mouth breathing waveform shows up, because I'm wondering if I need to try a chin strap, but I'd rather not, of course.

I probably will try a chin strap in the next couple of months, just because I've been using CPAP therapy for over four months now and have not experienced the increase in energy level that I had hoped for.

Question: How would mouth breathing affect leak rate reading, if any? I mean, can you know that you are mouth-breathing from the leak rate or any other data?