Dry Mouth Continues

Still struggling with dry mouth. The heated hose hasn't made a difference. Turned the humidity to highest level 8. Hasn't helped a bit. The water empties from the humidifier completely every night. This is a brand new machine. Doesn't this seem odd?

lwieland11 wrote:Still struggling with dry mouth. The heated hose hasn't made a difference. Turned the humidity to highest level 8. Hasn't helped a bit. The water empties from the humidifier completely every night. This is a brand new machine. Doesn't this seem odd?

Nope! Sounds perfectly logical to me. Too much heated humidity can cause more nasal congestion which can exacerbate more mouth breathing (you have to breathe through your nose or mouth)........which leads to more dry mouth.


Den

.

That certainly makes sense but I'm not experiencing any congestion.

lwieland11 wrote:That certainly makes sense but I'm not experiencing any congestion.

Then, try to train your tongue to stick to the roof of your mouth while you sleep. That should seal the back of your mouth area to allow nasal breathing. (try pretending you're sucking on a lemon drop)
The other option is evaluate any medications if you're taking them, along with any other medical conditions (like Diabetes).


Den

.

I do take an antihistamine - Allergra Allergy - in the morning and I know that can cause dry mouth but I can't really stop taking that as far as I know. I do have a nose spray that helps with allergies as needed. Maybe I could try using that instead to see if it helps. Not diabetic. Not sure if anything else I have would cause dry mouth. Will definitely investigate.

You might ask your ENT spec. for a tiny dose of prednisone to take instead of the Allegra - it does the job (even at 1.2 or 3 mg - without the dryness.

Stay away from Afrin.


Den

.

Afrin, or it's generic, Oxymetazoline, is a safe, and reliable nasal decongestant, and may be used for an extended period of time if only used once every 24 hours.

if used every 12 hours, it will result in rebound congestion in as little as three days when use is discontinued, if only used at night, this dependency does not develop.

Unfortunately, sealing your tongue to the roof of your mouth when wearing a full-face mask doesn't guarantee you won't have dry mouth. (I believe the OP has a FF mask, as do I.) I have horrible dry mouth every morning that I"m working to correct. Often I wake up with my tongue almost cemented to the roof of my mouth with my mouth open. So apparently what's drying my mouth is the air in the mask going in my open mouth! I also take a few meds that can cause dry mouth, so I'm battling it from several fronts. I found Xylimelts locally today, something several people here recommended, and I'm going to try that tonight. I understand your misery, lwieland11!

Thanks, Weary One. May I ask where you found Xylimelts?

Lweiland11, you can get the Xylimelts on Amazon. I had tried the usual places such as CVS and Walgreens, but they didn't have them. I ended up finding them at a local pharmacy, so not much help for you there!

https://www.google.com/search?q=Xylimel ... 8&oe=utf-8


Den

.

Keep a bottle of a weakened version of either Propel or Gatorade by the bed.
You want just enuff of the mix to make it pH balanced but not overly sweet. Take just enuf to moisten your mouth then go back to sleep.
Using too much water from the humidifier can also be an indication of a leak.

lwieland11 wrote:Still struggling with dry mouth. The heated hose hasn't made a difference. Turned the humidity to highest level 8. Hasn't helped a bit. The water empties from the humidifier completely every night. This is a brand new machine. Doesn't this seem odd?

No, it doesn't. Full face masks tend to put pressure on some individual's jaws, which, as a result, drops during sleep and airs goes out of the mouth on exhale. I had the same dry mouth issue until I started taping my mouth to enforce nose breathing, which is also important with a full face mask as well. Other alternatives are cervical collars or hairbands by Jay Aitchsee. For the former, search the forum, for the latter - viewtopic.php?p=1096117#p1096117.

I used to be doing jacking up humidity very high, but experienced either a lot of congestion with heated air or rainout. Now my humidity setting is 0, i.e. pass-over humidification. Nasal is clear, no allergy meds.

A full face is supposed to allow mouth breathers to keep their mouths open. The humidifier is supposed to keep your nose and moth from drying out, no? Not understanding why, at an 8 setting, it is not doing that.