Dry Mouth Continues

[DeeCPAP]

anyways.

lots of good suggestions in this thread thus far.

i'd suggest OP go back and read them, perhaps a few times.

i use a full face mask and i've this problem also. i've had good luck with sleeping more on my side, which tends to help my jaw from drifting down and my mouth opening all night.

i've also started using a cervical collar that seems to help keep my mouth closed more, though i still do fight nasal congestion so i'm still trying to find the decongestant that works best for me, i've seasonal allergies.

i've also found that finding the right full face mask will help this issue. a few masks i've tried, no matter what...my mouth would drift open at night and the mask would be unsealed or i'd wake up with terrible dry mouth because my mouth would be wide open all night.

with the amara view and the airfit f20, i've found two masks that retain their seal all night and i tend to have far less dry mouth. my humidifier is usually on about 5-6 and i use a heated hose set to auto.

i've also used the xylomints and biotine at times when i was having a lot of issues with dry mouth.

I've been using a nasal, but because of opening my mouth, my doc order an Amera View. I also had dry mouth with the other masks. Do most people have dry mouth with Amera View? Maybe I should send it back when it arrives.

Oh, how I hate using CPAP's. The best feel is DreamWear but I open my mouth. I know three women who refused to use CPAP after a short while because of this same misery. I've been at it over 10 years. I want to give up but won't. With the last mask (can't remember the name), I'd wake up in the middle of the night and spray biotine. Disrupts sleep though.

[lwieland11]

I do understand the desire to throw in the towel. Have wanted to do it many times in the 14 years I've been struggling with CPAP. There have been times when it was working but those were always short-lived. Always a hard-to-fix issue of some kind. That hasn't changed 14 years later. There have been a few nights when I actually got a better night's sleep without the CPAP. Wake up feeling great, full of energy, no brain fog, raring to go. I have no idea why. When I wear the CPAP for 6+hours, I feel better, no naps needed. But recently the ongoing issues with the dry mouth and the mask have made that impossible. It has become nightmare on a nightly basis. I have received some thoughtful suggestions here from most people which I will try. I think though that the main culprit is my pressure. Think it's a little too high.

[crestifer]

anyways.

lots of good suggestions in this thread thus far.

i'd suggest OP go back and read them, perhaps a few times.

i use a full face mask and i've this problem also. i've had good luck with sleeping more on my side, which tends to help my jaw from drifting down and my mouth opening all night.

i've also started using a cervical collar that seems to help keep my mouth closed more, though i still do fight nasal congestion so i'm still trying to find the decongestant that works best for me, i've seasonal allergies.

i've also found that finding the right full face mask will help this issue. a few masks i've tried, no matter what...my mouth would drift open at night and the mask would be unsealed or i'd wake up with terrible dry mouth because my mouth would be wide open all night.

with the amara view and the airfit f20, i've found two masks that retain their seal all night and i tend to have far less dry mouth. my humidifier is usually on about 5-6 and i use a heated hose set to auto.

i've also used the xylomints and biotine at times when i was having a lot of issues with dry mouth.

I've been using a nasal, but because of opening my mouth, my doc order an Amera View. I also had dry mouth with the other masks. Do most people have dry mouth with Amera View? Maybe I should send it back when it arrives.

Oh, how I hate using CPAP's. The best feel is DreamWear but I open my mouth. I know three women who refused to use CPAP after a short while because of this same misery. I've been at it over 10 years. I want to give up but won't. With the last mask (can't remember the name), I'd wake up in the middle of the night and spray biotine. Disrupts sleep though.

i've had pretty good luck with the amara view mask. as full face masks go, it's of the least obtrusive i've tried. it also seals very well for me and stays so for most of the night. it is for sure the lightest and least annoying full face mask i've tried.

with my humidifier set around 5-6 and my heated hose, ensuring that i sleep on my side, and using a cervical collar which helps keep my chin from dropping at night, i've not had as much issue with dry mouth lately. i also occassionally will use some biotene gel before i put the mask on and that seems to help.

if you have not used a full face mask before, i think you will find the amara view to be a good choice. it doesn't cover your whole nose, but rather the bottom part of your nose and nostrils sort of sit in the mask and it rests right under your nose and over your mouth. it's a very cool design.

that being said, not all masks work and seal properly on everyone, it's trial and error. another mask i've found that works for me is the airfit F20. it is also a full face mask, but a design that does not have a piece of plastic running up between your eyes and a forehead rest like many full face masks do. the F20 is also very comfortable for me and seals fairly well.

[Pugsy]

I also had dry mouth with the other masks. Do most people have dry mouth with Amera View? Maybe I should send it back when it arrives.

Dry mouth comes from mouth breathing...with or without a full face mask.
Possibly made worse by medications or health conditions that tend to dry things out in the body in general.

All the full face mask does is keep the airway circuit pressurized so that air going up the nose doesn't go out into the bedroom via the mouth. Loss of therapy pressure could mean negatively impacting therapy effectiveness if it is very prolonged.

Some people find that the humidified air introduced into the mouth via the full face mask is sufficient to rehydrate the oral mucosa. That's wonderful when that happens but there's no guarantee that any full face mask will fix the dry mouth problem even if the humidifier was cranking out maximum humidity. Humidifiers were originally designed to help hydrate the nasal mucosa because it is the nasal mucosa's reaction to getting dried out from the air that caused some people to not be able to successfully use cpap....think your worst allergy attack symptoms...that's what can happen to some people when their nasal mucosa gets dried out.
Now the nasal cavity is much smaller and the humidifier can normally crank out enough moisture to keep the nasal mucosa happy but the oral cavity is much larger and for some people the mouth is so dry that the humidifier simply can't put out enough moisture to fix the dry mouth.

Now why does it vary so much? Who knows...maybe meds...maybe some people don't mouth breathe as much as other...maybe just unlucky.

We have a lot of full face mask users here complaining of dry mouth...some prefer minimal humidity anyway but some complain of dry mouth even with humidifier set to maximum. It just happens and switching to a full face mask doesn't guarantee the dry mouth issues will go away.
Now some people it does fix the issue but some people still have really bad dry mouth for whatever reason and those people just have to do something else to help moisturize the oral cavity. That's where those products design specifically to add moisture to the mouth come in handy.

So we can't guarantee that a full face mask will resolve the dry mouth issues...it might and it might not but it's worth a try.
If it helps....great...but if it doesn't then people have to start looking at those mouth moisturizing products and find one that works well for them.

Oh...depending on the person it doesn't always take a huge amount of mouth breathing (without a full face mask) to dry out the mouth. I get dry mouth with only about 5 minutes of mouth breathing. I see the big leak on my software leak graph and it doesn't last very long at all but I have woke up with bad dry mouth and go get a drink...so turn the machine off and I can easily see the large leak right before the machine gets turned off. Pretty sure it is the mouth breathing drying out the mouth.
So it doesn't always mean that you spent half the night mouth breathing...it can be as little as 5 minutes if your mouth dries out easily.

[DeeCPAP]

anyways.

lots of good suggestions in this thread thus far.

i'd suggest OP go back and read them, perhaps a few times.

i use a full face mask and i've this problem also. i've had good luck with sleeping more on my side, which tends to help my jaw from drifting down and my mouth opening all night.

i've also started using a cervical collar that seems to help keep my mouth closed more, though i still do fight nasal congestion so i'm still trying to find the decongestant that works best for me, i've seasonal allergies.

i've also found that finding the right full face mask will help this issue. a few masks i've tried, no matter what...my mouth would drift open at night and the mask would be unsealed or i'd wake up with terrible dry mouth because my mouth would be wide open all night.

with the amara view and the airfit f20, i've found two masks that retain their seal all night and i tend to have far less dry mouth. my humidifier is usually on about 5-6 and i use a heated hose set to auto.

i've also used the xylomints and biotine at times when i was having a lot of issues with dry mouth.

I've been using a nasal, but because of opening my mouth, my doc order an Amera View. I also had dry mouth with the other masks. Do most people have dry mouth with Amera View? Maybe I should send it back when it arrives.

Oh, how I hate using CPAP's. The best feel is DreamWear but I open my mouth. I know three women who refused to use CPAP after a short while because of this same misery. I've been at it over 10 years. I want to give up but won't. With the last mask (can't remember the name), I'd wake up in the middle of the night and spray biotine. Disrupts sleep though.

i've had pretty good luck with the amara view mask. as full face masks go, it's of the least obtrusive i've tried. it also seals very well for me and stays so for most of the night. it is for sure the lightest and least annoying full face mask i've tried.

with my humidifier set around 5-6 and my heated hose, ensuring that i sleep on my side, and using a cervical collar which helps keep my chin from dropping at night, i've not had as much issue with dry mouth lately. i also occassionally will use some biotene gel before i put the mask on and that seems to help.

if you have not used a full face mask before, i think you will find the amara view to be a good choice. it doesn't cover your whole nose, but rather the bottom part of your nose and nostrils sort of sit in the mask and it rests right under your nose and over your mouth. it's a very cool design.

that being said, not all masks work and seal properly on everyone, it's trial and error. another mask i've found that works for me is the airfit F20. it is also a full face mask, but a design that does not have a piece of plastic running up between your eyes and a forehead rest like many full face masks do. the F20 is also very comfortable for me and seals fairly well.

Thanks so much! I've been using the DreamWear and love it, but the data from the machine, according to my doc, shows I mouth breathe a lot. I'll keep the Amera View and give it a try. Again, thanks!

[49er]

i seem to see a trend on this board:

person with issue describes problem, asks for help from pool of people who have long experiences with CPAP machines and similar problems.

person who has experienced the issue before and solved or at least dealt with the issue offers help and advice.

original person questions why helpful person is suggesting x to deal with issue.

helpful person restates why x is a sound suggestion to help with the issue.

original person questions why helpful person suggesting x is not suggesting something different than x

helpful person states again why x is the thing to do.

original person still doubts x.

other people from pool of experienced CPAP users chime in to reinforce x.

original person still doubts x.

helpful persons a, b, c, d quote from earlier suggestions in attempt to get original person to read suggestion x once again.

original person still doubts x.

rinse, repeat.

Crestifer, when people have sleep issues, it can take them alot more than the usual amount of time to understand a suggestion. Just because someone doesn't understand advice, doesn't make that person a troll. If they are obviously not getting the information, why not find another way to restate it or post a link that the person can access.

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

[desiderata]

.

[DreamStalker]

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

It's a failure of compassion and pretty entrenched in society, unfortunately. With all the polarization, weak sense of community, and emotional disregulation out there in the world, some online-BB-rage is not surprising. There are best practices that can help, but they are at best only partially effective, esp. when the owners of the venue/communication channel are not willing to implement them.

While I agree completely with your causal observation, I completely disagree with your best practices solution. Compassion cannot be forced on people ... that would be tyranny and the direct opposite of compassion.

As for newbies with dry mouth issues ... they have to really want to improve their OSA therapy for them to stick around. What has been said about dry mouth is caused by breathing through the mouth when we are not supposed to breath through the mouth ... it just is what it is. For some, a FF mask makes things worse by the lower strap cranking a force vector onto the lower jaw to open the mouth (ie maybe your lower strap is too tight or maybe any or all of the straps are too loose and allowing air to leak out which also contributes to dry mouth). I found that for me, the FF mask just had way too many variables to keep in check in order to make a comfortable and leak-free CPAP interface. It was just easier for me to mitigate the surface area of the face that needs to maintain a leak-free seal (a nasal pillow mask interface) and then train myself to keep my mouth closed while asleep. So yeah, finding the right mask fit is the key to succeeding with CPAP therapy .... well, that and not being too thin-skinned with a need for a private safe space from the forum.

[Guest]

It's a failure of compassion

Yet some of those here who like to pile-on also preach empathy, how odd is that. Search for a post on here titled Inner Circle for more entertainment.

[crestifer]

Crestifer, when people have sleep issues, it can take them a lot more than the usual amount of time to understand a suggestion. Just because someone doesn't understand advice, doesn't make that person a troll. If they are obviously not getting the information, why not find another way to restate it or post a link that the person can access.

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

i understand your point. i'm not referring to newbies. i'm also not suggesting anyone is a troll.

my comment was specifically addressing the threads i've seen where someone who has been here quite a while, based on the number of their posts, and seems to be asking the same question over and over and questioning literally every single answer they are given, even when that answer is backed up with quite a few other people.

my point being, when someone makes an inquiry for help, and they are given suggestions, but then they question those suggestions over and over....those folks who wish to be helpful start to lose patience.

no one is being paid to be here. one has to assume those folks who take the time to address questions with their own experience are doing so in the service and desire to help others.

i don't think most people here are here for entertainment or to give new folks a hard time.

[crestifer]

Thanks so much! I've been using the DreamWear and love it, but the data from the machine, according to my doc, shows I mouth breathe a lot. I'll keep the Amera View and give it a try. Again, thanks!

you are welcome. i have the same issue. i mouth breathe a lot as well, and i've had a struggle just trying to find the right mask that will retain a seal and not dig into my face all night long.

i'm having pretty good luck with the amara view and the f20 right now. i hope the amara can work for you.

[palerider]

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

perhaps if you ever had anything useful to say, you might understand, that when someone's been on the board for *months* and continues posting stupid stuff and not taking advice, it's incredibly frustrating.

but, for you, who just sits on the sidelines and criticizes the behavior of others, well, it's just entertainment for you.

[49er]

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

perhaps if you ever had anything useful to say, you might understand, that when someone's been on the board for *months* and continues posting stupid stuff and not taking advice, it's incredibly frustrating.

but, for you, who just sits on the sidelines and criticizes the behavior of others, well, it's just entertainment for you.

Hmm, I thought I was on your ignore list.

Actually, I do need some entertainment when I have my mysterious narcoleptic like sleep attacks. I should try reading the posts when I feel driven to nod off. Thanks PR, you gave me an idea.

49er

[palerider]

I just don't understand this gang up on the newbie mentality on this board and never have. We have an opportunity to teach people the apnea basics and all we are doing is driving people away. I know things aren't going to change but I find it very frustrating.

perhaps if you ever had anything useful to say, you might understand, that when someone's been on the board for *months* and continues posting stupid stuff and not taking advice, it's incredibly frustrating.

but, for you, who just sits on the sidelines and criticizes the behavior of others, well, it's just entertainment for you.

Hmm, I thought I was on your ignore list.

you are, someone quoted your drivel.

[49er]

lwieland11,

First of all, my apologies for diverting your thread.

Like you, I have a dry mouth in which it doesn't matter which mask or humidification level I use. I can't offer proof but I feel being on psych meds for years did something to alter my salivary glands because it started with these drugs.

Besides trying the suggestions offered regarding alleviating a dry mouth, I would also ask your dentist about a prescription Floride toothpaste that would protect against the decay a dry mouth causes with the inability to adequately wash out the debris. I have used one (not as often as I should) and so far, have not had any cavities. Knock on wood.

Best of luck.

49er