Detecting mouth breathing?

WillCunningham · Post by **WillCunningham** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:05 am

Howdy,

I was wondering if anyone had any information about ways to tell if you are mouthbreathing while on cpap? I have been tracking things with the Encore software and my leak rates are pretty consistant, would mouth breathing show up as a leak? My throat has been dry lately. I don't think it is due to mouth breathing but it did get me wondering. How do people deterimine if they are mouth breathing or not?

Thanks!

Will

oldgearhead · Post by **oldgearhead** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:10 am

1) Dry throat.
2) Using more than the normal amount of humidifier water.
3) An audio recording of a snake sound.

I'm serious about using a recorder. Its a great tool.

TerryB · Post by **TerryB** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:15 am

Your significan other can alert you to the problem. You just have to let them know that when you make a loud hissing noise during your sleep it is a bad thing. Usually a really dry mouth happens and it is not just a little dry, your mouth parts and tongue will hurt!

TerryB

roztom · Post by **roztom** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:23 am

If you wake up with you mouth open, LOL or are mouth puffing then you might be mouth breathing.

Also, if you look at your leak data and see spikes in leak.

Tom

MandoJohnny · Post by **MandoJohnny** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:51 am

I just did the recording thing one better last night. I have a Sony videocam with the "Nightshot" feature, which basically an infrared mode. In complete darkness, you get a monchrome picture with a greenish tint, but it is very clear. I had it on a tripod next to the bed, trained on my face. Just as a test, I did some intentional mouth breathing before I went to sleep, just to test how it would show up.

This morning, I viewed the tape on fast forward, which still gave a pretty clear picture. Anytime I saw an anamoly, I rewound and played back that section in real-time mode for more clarity. The mouth breathing "test" was very noticeable, especially on the audio. You could really hear the whoosh of air. What I found out was that at least in the three hours of video I got, I did not mouth breathe, at all.

That, combined with the fact that my doc said that I did not mouth breathe during the titration part of the sleep study and that my leak stats have been consistently very acceptable for the two months I have been on CPAP, I am going to stop worrying about mouth breathing.

My next step is to use the videocam, repositioned to get a good look at my legs, every night over the next few weeks to check for RLS. I am going to try it without medication, then with Neurontin, then with Requip. I am going to see what works best.

Sibby · Post by **Sibby** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:13 am

This has me wondering about how will I know about my own mouth breathing. My throat was only a bit dry this morning, nothing unusual for me. I sleep by myself, so I can't rely on any help from another person as to what I may or may not be doing during the night.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:28 am

If you wear a FF Mask correctly, or Tape correctly, you aren't mouthbreathing,

If you don't, you have a 95% chance you are mouthbreathing, and about a 80% chance it's affecting your treatment. Jim

De-Nile is Wide and Deep.

tomjax · Post by **tomjax** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:43 pm

Very interesting. I use a breeze and it seems to be totally sealed and not leaking. I cannot even get it to leak in any position awake.
But in the MY ENCORE and encore, the graphs show some very strange things going on about 4-5 AM.
the thing- leak rate- is all over the place and the presure seems to increase.

I am at a total loss to imagine what is going on. wish I had your camers though.
my ahi seem to be less than 1 though, so I suppose all is well.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:59 pm

[quote="tomjax"]Very interesting. I use a breeze and it seems to be totally sealed and not leaking. I cannot even get it to leak in any position awake.
But in the MY ENCORE and encore, the graphs show some very strange things going on about 4-5 AM.
the thing- leak rate- is all over the place and the presure seems to increase.

I am at a total loss to imagine what is going on. wish I had your camers though.
my ahi seem to be less than 1 though, so I suppose all is well.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:21 pm

Goofproof wrote:If you don't, you have a 95% chance you are mouthbreathing, and about a 80% chance it's affecting your treatment. Jim

What the heck are you basing this on? I doubt that it's anywhere near that high.

cpapjack · Post by **cpapjack** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:33 pm

Anonymous wrote:
Goofproof wrote:If you don't, you have a 95% chance you are mouthbreathing, and about a 80% chance it's affecting your treatment. Jim
What the heck are you basing this on? I doubt that it's anywhere near that high.

My guess would be his own personal experience, which there's nothing wrong with that.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:53 pm

The fact that lots of people here try different methods to stop mouthbreathing and report a high failure rate, some are lucky and succeed, they are the lucky ones.

Some come back and report this or that didn't work, but a lot, just Swim in De-Nile, and drown. I never had to worry with it myself, I took the CURE, a FF Mask from day one, leaks and weird noises included, but despite that, it works. Jim

WillCunningham · Post by **WillCunningham** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:24 pm

I am still not sure how to tell if I am mouth breathing. I could try recording myself, though at this time I don't have any recording devices. I was a mouth breather pre-cpap because I was always too congested to nose breath. When I started cPAP I was nervous about that but it seemed to work so I assumed it wasn't a problem. It seemed unnatural to let the air go through my mouth while wearing the mask and I definately experianced the benifit of cpap so I assumed I was ok.

I still think I have gotten lucky and do not have mouth breathing issues, but I would like to know for sure. I would like to eliminate it as a potential problem. I was wondering if people that do experiance mouth breathing end up with apneas being detected by the software, or have a spike in thier average leak rate? My average leak rate has been consistant. I do have some high max spikes, but I alwasy assumed that was me putting on or taking off the mask, or adjusting the fit.

I have been extra tired the past couple of weeks. There are too many variables for me to nail down exactly what is happening. That is what made me curious about mouth leaks, they lead to the symptoms I have seen and while I assumed I never had that problem I thought it might be prudent to verify that somehow.

I am pretty sure the issue is that I have been sick, or had a toothache, or most recently dealing with an allergic reaction to pennicillin that gave me a sunburn like rash. Still, I hate that sleepy zombie feeling and want to make sure I don't let something slip through the cracks and mess with my ability to sleep.

lvehko · Post by **lvehko** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:33 pm

I'm gonna bump this topic, because I recently went tape-free to see what would happen, and there was very little change in my efficacy data -- so naturally I'm hoping that I am not breathing or leaking through my mouth, but I'm worried that if I am, how will I know? It's sooo nice not to have to tape, but if I have to, I have to. Will, did you figure out how to tell if you are mouth-breathing?

Min

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:02 pm

I think if you were mouth breathing you would know it with a pressure of 17cm.

What is your current leak rate? and what mask are you using?

You would have to look at the chart that comes with the mask to determine the intentional leak rate based upon your pressure. What you have to be concerned about is the machine not being able to compensate for the intentional leak and any mask leak you may have. These machines have a limit on the Lpm they can deliver.

If your leak/mask leak rate exceeds what the machine can deliver, then you won't receive the best of treatment. This is why it is silly to give a patient a straight cpap machine when their pressure is approaching the maximum deliverly flow of the machine. A Bi-pap would have higher flow and pressure rates.

Detecting mouth breathing?

Detecting mouth breathing?

air leak

Re: air leak

Mask

Additional Comments: Started CPAP June 14, 2006, pressure set at 8.0