Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
Hello all, saw a new sleep Dr today, although I'm a firm believer that I'm a mouth breather he suggested I try these nasal pillows, because the forced air might force me so to speak to use my nose only. I'm skeptical? So the way I will know is my mouth will be dry?? Also if I'm exhaling out of my mouth does that effect leak rate on SH software? Yes? I have nobody sleeping with me to affirm that I mouth breathe.
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
You are right on both counts. If you are mouth breathing/leaking, you will get dry mouth and it will show up on your leak rate. If you do mouth breathe/leak you can try a chin strap. The real stopper however is your tongue. It needs to seal against the back of your mouth. You can practice it during the day (open your mouth and keep breathing through your nose. The chin strap helps some people.
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
(01-26-2015, 09:45 PM)PaytonA Wrote: You are right on both counts. If you are mouth breathing/leaking, you will get dry mouth and it will show up on your leak rate. If you do mouth breathe/leak you can try a chin strap. The real stopper however is your tongue. It needs to seal against the back of your mouth. You can practice it during the day (open your mouth and keep breathing through your nose. The chin strap helps some people.
I'm going to where a chinstrap, but I'm not sure I can defeat my subconscious fact that I exhale through mouth, what exactly am I looking for tomorrow? Just excessive leak rate from P10?
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
A mouth leak looks like a flat-top plateau on the graph. You'll know it if you see it. A mouth leak is also pretty noisy - you might wake yourself up.
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
I'm the original poster child for mouth breathers, Inc. I do still require a chinstrap at night although I can go a night or so without it. The secret of the chinstrap is to use gentle pressure. What it does is "encourage" the jaw to stay forward, which in turn encourages the tongue to stay put on the roof of your mouth, which completes the airway block.
I have found that I can inhale and exhale through my nose without any difficulty at all. Even when I get congested from a cold or allergy the pillows still allow me a comfortable nights sleep, and as an additional benefit seem to help clear up my sinuses for the next day.
But if I put the chinstrap on too tightly? I will get a very bad pain in the whatsits gland that lives inbetween the jaw and the ear. So that's why I use the term apply "gently."
01-27-2015, 12:41 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-27-2015, 12:42 AM by sumzzzs.)
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
(01-26-2015, 11:53 PM)DeepBreathing Wrote: A mouth leak looks like a flat-top plateau on the graph. You'll know it if you see it. A mouth leak is also pretty noisy - you might wake yourself up.
I believe I will wake myself when I leak  But thanks for that hint on the graph appearance
(01-27-2015, 12:01 AM)retired_guy Wrote: I'm the original poster child for mouth breathers, Inc. I do still require a chinstrap at night although I can go a night or so without it. The secret of the chinstrap is to use gentle pressure. What it does is "encourage" the jaw to stay forward, which in turn encourages the tongue to stay put on the roof of your mouth, which completes the airway block.
I have found that I can inhale and exhale through my nose without any difficulty at all. Even when I get congested from a cold or allergy the pillows still allow me a comfortable nights sleep, and as an additional benefit seem to help clear up my sinuses for the next day.
But if I put the chinstrap on too tightly? I will get a very bad pain in the whatsits gland that lives inbetween the jaw and the ear. So that's why I use the term apply "gently."
I will try your chinstrap pointer tonight, I might have been doing this wrong with my FFM. Thanks
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
Hi sumzzzs,
I also use a chin strap, not too tight though. You should still be able to move your mouth.
After using it for awhile, you can try without for a day or two. It's as if it trains you to keep your mouth closed. I know in my case that if I start breathing through my mouth, it is so noisy that it wakes me up! Very annoying that dry mouth feeling.
Good luck!
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
So...How'd it go? Sum-zzz's?
I have the p10 and I LOVE IT! (apart from my DME not carrying the "for her" strap that is lavender and which I would have preferred...Note to self, ask them to order it in for my next one?)
Yes I have Trigeminal Neuralgia acting up again since C-pap, and yes I may have to go to another mask at some point but for now, it's love.
So..in my early days with it, (which coincided with early c-pap days as well) I opened my mouth a few times the first few nights, and heard the hurricane, and worse yet, felt the absolute cotton mouth from even a short opening time. I thought i might have to go to a chin strap as well, but I watched my charts, and I did the thing where you try to seal your tongue on the roof of your mouth (make care not to press it against back of teeth/that would be a tongue thrust and it's bad for your occlusion) when going to sleep and any time I go back to sleep as well. I've somehow managed to mostly keep mouth shut. After the hurricane nights, I had a couple nights where my lips were doing "raspberries" (YES I am SURE it was my lips ahem!) obviously trying to stay sealed but letting snores/airs out. Well that too woke me up. By about a week, I was not doing any of those and my leak rates have been acceptable apart from high leaks when I leave mask running during loo trips.
I was afraid if I went to a chin strap too fast, my lazy self muscle memory would just slack off and rely on it. One reason I'd hesitate to use a full face because I don't want to develop bad habits. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. If my leak rates were bad I'd have gone to chin strap done lightly like suggested. I may still have to go to one to get my AHI lower, we'll see.
Hope you had a good night. Stay with the p10 at least a week if you can. There is a learning curve. Also pillow size matters I here. I've only tried the mediums which were suggested by DME but if you have all three sizes in your kit, experiement.
Susan
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
(01-27-2015, 12:01 AM)retired_guy Wrote: ...What it does is "encourage" the jaw to stay forward, which in turn encourages the tongue to stay put on the roof of your mouth...
Not to derail the thread, but I am using the P10 and have never really had an issue with mouth breathing, so I have not ever investigated a chin strap; never even have seen one and can only imagine them.
But my thinking is that a chin strap applies pressure from the direction it is anchored (back/top of head). So how can that help your jaw jut forward?
The reason I ask is that my airway opens up much better if I jut my jaw forward; I could probably get away with a dental appliance, but I already have a Autoset and it does not bother me at all, and I like being able to parse the data to see how I'm doing, so I expect to stay with it.
But if a chinstrap would help actually jut my jaw forward, I think that could only be an improvement, so you have piqued my curiosity. Can you elaborate on how this all works? Do you have a recommendation on straps that I can research?
RE: Trying P10 Nasal Pillow tonight, how do I know if my mouth leaked?
If it doesnt wake you up that normal dry mouth turns into an extremely dry mouth. So dry you will feel like eating vaseline. lol Good luck. The nose mask is the only mask I could use effectively.
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