dry mouth

Does anyone know how to keep from getting a dry mouth when using the cpap?

pose wrote:Does anyone know how to keep from getting a dry mouth when using the cpap?

Keep your mouth shut and breathe through your nose.
Dry mouth is a likely sign that the user is breathing or leaking air through their mouth.


Den

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I always breathe through my nose and rarely have any leakage, but I do have a bit of dry mouth. Biotene Gel helps. https://www.biotene.com/dry-mouth-produ ... izing-gel/ It was especially helpful while I was taking a medication that caused dry mouth. Put a little dab on the the end of your tongue, spread it around the inside of your mouth, and you're good to go.

I was just talking to my dentist today about this as he was prepping my mouth for another crown due to a broken tooth because of dry mouth and prior fillings. He recommends the Oragel mouth Moisturizer, also he recomends swishing your saliva around several times a day which generates more saliva and anything citrus. Apparently citrus helps stimulate saliva production. Just a note about mouth breathing. Depending on what machine you have and the pressure setting having your mouth open while using cpap can move your teeth apart. I used to have the Resmed Bipap ST and when I opened mouth air would come shooting out of my mouth. My bottom teeth started to separate and then I got a new machine which was the Resmed S9 VPAP Adapt ASV. Air no longer shoots out of my mouth. I don't know if it depends on the settings or not. Anyhow to make a long story short, my teeth went back, but not the same, so there goes the braces I wore for years. Luckily it is not too noticeable. Also, teeth that get really dry have a whole host of problems. I could see inside the bottom front teeth where you bite down and teeth break easier. (I've had three broken teeth) I'm only telling you this because I wish someone had told me. Mine is also combined with medication that causes drymouth so it is a double edged sword. Anyone else who has tips or advise I'm all eyes. Make regular dental appointments, keep water near your bed to take sips during the night. Also, my dentist recomends getting your teeth varnished to protect them from decay exacerbated by dry mouth. The juries still out on weather this works or not. I had my teeth reluctantly varnished in December, so I will see if it prevented further decay. I did not really want to try the varnish as it is controversial because of the chemicals. Good Luck and if you find anything that works Let us all know.

DeeDee

Are you using a nasal mask of some sort? When I would get dry mouth with a nasal mask it was because I would open my mouth at night causing the air to rush into my mouth because of CPAP pressure, which you CPAP machine senses as a massive air leak. Once I switched the a full face mask that solved the problem.

Having a full-face mask (or a hybrid-type) doesn't necessarily stop the dry mouth. Even if your not losing treatment air with an open mouth, it can still dry some people out big time. I use the Hybrid (covers mouth and has nasal pillows) and I have horrible dry mouth. It's gotten worse in the last four months for some reason. I sleep with my mouth open a lot of the time. I've been on CPAP for over 10 years, so if I haven't learned how to naturally keep my mouth shut by now, it's not going to happen...LOL!

I'm starting to get a lot of cavities now that the dentist is attributing to dry mouth. My dental exams show I'm taking good care of my teeth otherwise. Biotene toothpaste doesn't really help, so I'm looking at other products. Plus, last night I used that paper medical tape and taped over half my mouth (can't stand the thought of taping all the way across). I figured the tape even on half of my mouth would keep it from opening up to a gaping hole and that a little opening would be better than that. And it actually seemed to help.

On this forum I've read that Orajel Dry Mouth and also Xylimelts help a lot of people, so those are my next tries.

What Wulfman said.