Dry Mouth

I have been trying to retrain so that I once again can only use a nasal pillow. My problem is that I will breathe some through my mouth and awaken with a very dry mouth--everything glued together it seems. I am using the humidifier on the machine, for what that is worth. I wear a jaw strap, but that doesn't seem to help. I am looking for any suggestions to remedy the "dry mouth" syndrome.

Hollis wrote: I am looking for any suggestions to remedy the "dry mouth" syndrome.

Sorry, I can't help.

Hollis
Also Posted As:
(AHItoohigh)
(almondcake)
(Bobby269)
(Bookbear)
(Captain_Midnight)
(Catnapper)
(DreamStalker)
(fsjhdjsjjdh1)
(Grand-PAP)
(Grouch)
(herefishy)
(hobbs)
(Janknitz)
(JimmyB1983)
(KenM)
(klv329)
(lawr1000)
(Momcam)
(mrbreezeet1)
(nanwilson)
(palerider)
(poppi2)
(Pugsy)
(robo2084)
(RonS)
(SewTired)
(Slartybartfast)
(TASmart)
(Tesseract)
(The Wizzard)
(Toxicccccc)
(wannasmile)
(WearyOne)
(Yayoe10)
(ZubeDude)

This has gotten a bit silly.

Hollis, one of the support techs at the DME suggested the bedroom may not have enough humidity. I asked my sleep doctor and he agreed. We now have a room humidifier we use t night. Seems to be helping my dry mouth. You might want to give this a try. Good luck!

I have the same problem. I use a Hybrid mask that covers my mouth and nose. I wake up with an extremely dry mouth and sometimes my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. Increasing the machine humidity doesn't seem to help. And even if I'm only asleep for an hour or so it's the same thing.

HockeyGirl22, I have a small room humidifier, so I might give that a try. Do you put yours close to your machine or just in the room somewhere?

Hollis wrote:I have been trying to retrain so that I once again can only use a nasal pillow. My problem is that I will breathe some through my mouth and awaken with a very dry mouth--everything glued together it seems. I am using the humidifier on the machine, for what that is worth. I wear a jaw strap, but that doesn't seem to help. I am looking for any suggestions to remedy the "dry mouth" syndrome.

Having tried everything else, I am about on my fifth night or so of using the Ultimate Chinstrap. So far, I am down to an average of three sips from my water bottle a night and last night I needed no sips, and my percentage above the red line in SleepyHead is down to single digits. A huge improvement for me.

Regards, Nate

After trying everything mentioned above, this has totally solved the dry mouth problem for me:
https://www.oracoat.com/pages/wheretobuy

I got a box at a RiteAid Pharmacy, but they should be available at other pharmacies as well as online. Amazing results with only one Xylimelt per night between molar and cheek.

Comfortably Numb wrote:After trying everything mentioned above, this has totally solved the dry mouth problem for me:
https://www.oracoat.com/pages/wheretobuy

I got a box at a RiteAid Pharmacy, but they should be available at other pharmacies as well as online. Amazing results with only one Xylimelt per night between molar and cheek.

I tried Xyliments from posts I saw on here. Unfortunately, didn't work for me. Sure wish it had. A friend's husband has the same problem and I'm going to let him have the rest of my pack. Hopefully he'll have success with them.

This used to happen with my nasal pillows because I would open my mouth and air would shoot in my nose and out my mouth, I fixed this by using a hair band from target it (a black circular one). I tried actual Apnea jaw strap but it was horrible and annoying. the hair band worked great and eliminated my dry mouth. If you have any big "leaks" this might be the major mouth leak I'm talking about. it could be leaking out of your mouth.

nicholasjh1 wrote:This used to happen with my nasal pillows because I would open my mouth and air would shoot in my nose and out my mouth, I fixed this by using a hair band from target it (a black circular one). I tried actual Apnea jaw strap but it was horrible and annoying. the hair band worked great and eliminated my dry mouth.

I agree! I also tried hairbands over my mouth, and when they stayed in place there were much more effective and much more comfortable than all those ridiculous chinstraps, when they stayed in place. Covering the lips seems to be the key.

The problem for me is that the hairbands won't stay in place for me anymore and keep slipping down and my percentage of time over red line in Sleepyhead went up into double digits, which is why I very recently began using the Ultimate Chinstrap, which is really not a chinstrap at all but a mouth cover like the hairbands but with straps to keep it from slipping out of place. Now I've got it back into single digits. Last night it was only 1.48!

Regards, Nate

NateS wrote:

nicholasjh1 wrote:This used to happen with my nasal pillows because I would open my mouth and air would shoot in my nose and out my mouth, I fixed this by using a hair band from target it (a black circular one). I tried actual Apnea jaw strap but it was horrible and annoying. the hair band worked great and eliminated my dry mouth.

I agree! I also tried hairbands over my mouth, and when they stayed in place there were much more effective and much more comfortable than all those ridiculous chinstraps, when they stayed in place. Covering the lips seems to be the key.

The problem for me is that the hairbands won't stay in place for me anymore and keep slipping down and my percentage of time over red line in Sleepyhead went up into double digits, which is why I very recently began using the Ultimate Chinstrap, which is really not a chinstrap at all but a mouth cover like the hairbands but with straps to keep it from slipping out of place. Now I've got it back into single digits. Last night it was only 1.48!

Regards, Nate

agreed, I had a bit of sputtering mouth leak even after the chin strap, but I just kept telling myself not to allow mouth leak before I went to bed (I got the idea because I did this method to start sleeping on my side and it worked) and eventually I seemed to stop mouth leak, but of course I don't really have a way to verify since I could just be sleeping through it. I might have to try out "the ultimate chinstrap".

Hollis wrote:I have been trying to retrain so that I once again can only use a nasal pillow. My problem is that I will breathe some through my mouth and awaken with a very dry mouth--everything glued together it seems. I am using the humidifier on the machine, for what that is worth. I wear a jaw strap, but that doesn't seem to help. I am looking for any suggestions to remedy the "dry mouth" syndrome.

Do keep in mind that any type of leak may cause dry mouth ... including leaks around the mask seal (aka - nares/pillows). So just because your mouth is 100% sealed does not preclude dry mouth if you leak air from the hose or mask seal or anywhere else within the pressure circuit.

Some masks have high "intentional leak rates" for CO2 ventilation, and that too can cause dry mouth even when the rest of the pressure circuit is properly sealed. Just one of the many reasons I stay away from from FF and nasal masks. Anyway, that dry mouth is proportionately correlated to leaks (of any type) has been my working hypothesis during my 10+ years of experience, trials and tribulations. Understandably, everyone has their own hypothesis and issues to work through ... so best of luck and keep on keeping on with your CPAP therapy.

nicholasjh1 wrote:
agreed, I had a bit of sputtering mouth leak even after the chin strap, but I just kept telling myself not to allow mouth leak before I went to bed (I got the idea because I did this method to start sleeping on my side and it worked) and eventually I seemed to stop mouth leak, but of course I don't really have a way to verify since I could just be sleeping through it. I might have to try out "the ultimate chinstrap".

If you run your SD card through Sleepyhead, you will know for sure one way or the other. On the Daily view, it appears on the left side of the screen on the grey band under the number of hours you slept, as "Large Leak" and more importantly it appears on the Statistics view as "percentage of time above Leak Rate threshold during your most recent night and also your average for Last Week, Last 30 Days, Last 6 Months and Last Year.

Regards, Nate

Now that I've got my mouth fully covered and pretty much eliminated the dry mouth, I would still like to take a little sip of water occasionally during the night, just out of habit. Does anyone know of where I would find a little curved or flexible pipette to fit over my water bottle? I've tried looking on Amazon, but maybe I am not using the right search terms. I've deliberately got the mouth cover part set up so I can't just pull it down so I would like to be able to just thread it under when desired.

Regards, Nate

NateS wrote:Does anyone know of where I would find a little curved or flexible pipette to fit over my water bottle?

About the size in diameter of a cocktail straw????