Why is there such resistance to mouth tape?

[Schnoozer]

My doctor, my ENT, my neurologist, and just about every health care provider seems to dislike the use of mouth tape. They have a sort of 'eye roll' reaction most of the time.

It's easy to think that with your mouth taped, you could have a freak accident and wind up suffocating yourself. But having used mouth tape for a while, it seems unlikely that it would happen. And, i have never heard of it happening. And I don't know anyone who has ever claimed that there has been an issue with mouth tape.

I'm not arguing that it's right or wrong, but what is the basis for the resistance from health care providers?

[G. Szabo]

I guess it is too simple and sounds like voodoo for a "healthcare professional."

[Deborah K.]

I have used it for several years, and even through covid have never had a problem with it.

[super7pilot]

My sleep doc said. But what if you barf. Barf was my word not hers.

Well, I guess if you suddenly woke up barfing. It could be problematic. But I have never even heard of many doing this that weren't drunk to the point of passing out. I tend to not drink to that point.

[phattyre]

I have acid reflux. If I remotely eat anything hours before bed, I run the risk of stomach discharge into my mouth. I can feel fine before bed, say it's not going to be an issue -- then bam!!

I am new to CPAP and trying to improve my leak rate on the OSCAR graph. I am wondering if I am breathing through my mouth at times at night.

Because taped lips could prevent your mouth from opening quickly, increase the risk of aspiration (inhaling vomit into the lungs) -- I decided to not risk it and only taped half my mouth. My graph actually looked worse today compared to yesterday.

They say a chinstrap is safer than mouth tape. I have the ResMed one on order.

[THEVGE]

I had to sneeze twice last night, then mouth tape is uncomfortable but still doable. Throwing up was in the past mostly self-induced by my male stupidity and near flat learning curve ;-).

[donsburg]

I have been using mouth tape for a couple of months and it has allowed me to use a nasal mask which is great. 

However sometimes the CPAP can give me reflux (seems to be rare, but once or twice) and I did wake one night suddenly with a mouth half full of vomit ? It was a pretty horrifying experience, I was able to get the mask and tape off quickly but it did occur to me that if I hadn't woken up immediately things could have been much more serious.

I'm still using the mouth tape but am planning to try a chin strap to see if I can get by without taping

[greatunclebill]

the chin strap keeps your jaw closed. but if your mouth or lips tend to come open it will still come open. try some kind of homemade chin strap to test it out before purchasing.

[G. Szabo]

To reduce the chance of vomiting, it is advisable not to eat 4-5 hours before bedtime. Also, reduce your liquid intake prior to sleep.

[super7pilot]

I have acid reflux. 

Not to digress from tape. But i HAD reflux and esophageal spasms (those hurt) for decades. I finally found the culprit for mine. Soda pop drinks. And it was the super high amounts of phosphoric acid they contain that got my reflux going. 

So i stopped drinking them and boom, Reflux went away.  I can still get acid stomach like all people can. It just isn’t all the time like it was. 

And a warning from my dr. who was a medical dr that believed in nutrition and vitamins. Don’t rely on proton pump pills. Find the reflux culprit. He said that 75% of the germs that we ingest are killed by the acid in our stomach. Taking those in effect harms our immune system. Ever wonder why diarrhea is a side effect of those pills.