Nasal Pillows and sore nostrils.

OP,

I hope you get your nasal pillows issues worked out.

If I may ask, what doctor do you use, and are you in Portland? I just moved out here and I'm trying to reestablish and am having a tough time finding intel on a great sleep medicine provider. I realize you may not be in this area, but I figured I'd ask at least =)

in regards to sore nose from nasal pillows, I would guess that you need to play with the sizes more. All of the creams in the world can't fix pressure on nostrils like that. Reduce the tension of the headgear and use a smaller size, if possible. My experience has been that once you have the headgear set the pillows should sit softly in the nostrils and once pressure goes up, they seal against the inside of the nose without undue pressure on the skin.

I use Swift FX and the other ones I've tried just don't work. For example, the Philips Nuance Pro. It just doesnt fit my nose.

I hear lots about soreness on the outside skin but ive been using my pillows for 2 monghs and i gave an extremely powerful
Painful sore on the inside of my left nostril. Ive tried neosporin but it doesn’t work. Has anyone experienced something similar?

AYR saline nasal gel works for me!

I use the dreamwear mask. It can be used with gel nasal pillows or just a mask the fits under the nose and not inside the nostrils. It's probably the most comfortable I've found and lightest too.

I don't know about you guys, but I just realized something after using nasal pillows for 4 nights. My nostril hurt. I would wake up in the middle of the night with pain in my nostrils and a bit up my nose.

At first I thought the straps were too tight. And this airfit p10 straps are not adjustable. But I managed to control the tightness by moving one of the straps to the front of my head. But even after making it really comfortable to my nose, it started hurting after almost an hour.

So I spent probably 2 hours trying to understand why it hurt and what hurt. I used the small, medium and large, they all had the same outcome.
Yes, the nostril hurt, and not because of the straps or the pillows, but because of the air pressure. I realized this when I pressed softly my nose, sort of like giving it support, and it relieved most of the pain while having the cpap on.

So if your nostrils are not able to support the CPAP air pressure, they could start hurting!
Obviously I never had this issue with a full mask obviously because the nostrils don't need to be "pressurized". I think I have no choice but to go back to the full mask.
I'm going to experiment making my nostrils tougher with same nose strips. I'll post my findings.

My nostrils hurt for the first 3 days back when I started xPAP... A break in period, after that it's been smooth and more comfortable than I could have imagined ... I am on ASV treatment with pressures now reaching 20cm and have little to no leaks and can sleep on my back to side with no issues ...

I haven't read all the replies, but my solution when I had the same problem was to switch to a nasal mask.
I have used many. My 2 favorites are Sleepweaver 3D and Wisp. YMMV.

Ip74 wrote: ↑

Mon May 07, 2018 9:42 pm

Yes, the nostril hurt, and not because of the straps or the pillows, but because of the air pressure. I realized this when I pressed softly my nose, sort of like giving it support, and it relieved most of the pain while having the cpap on.

It's more likely just the pressure on the nose from the pillows, not the pressure.

It's fairly common, and people, including myself, have had luck with Lamisil Lanolin, just a tiny amount morning and night.

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 07, 2018 10:33 pm

It's more likely just the pressure on the nose from the pillows, not the pressure.

Well, it wasn't my case. I tested it for hours during the day by setting the pillows to barely touch the nose, and after long while the nostrils started to hurt.

Last night I tested sleeping with a band aid over my nose from one nostril to the other and it stopped the problem entirely. It gave my nose more structural strength per se.

If this is happening to me, I bet there are many others with the same issue. I don't think I got a fragile nose, but the air pressure on the nostrils is definitely not good for me.

Ip74 wrote: ↑

Tue May 08, 2018 8:18 pm

If this is happening to me, I bet there are many others with the same issue. I don't think I got a fragile nose, but the air pressure on the nostrils is definitely not good for me.

Perhaps so, but you're the first person I remember ever seeing saying they had this issue... the pressure from cpap is just a tiny fraction of one psi...

palerider wrote: ↑

Tue May 08, 2018 8:37 pm

Ip74 wrote: ↑

Tue May 08, 2018 8:18 pm

If this is happening to me, I bet there are many others with the same issue. I don't think I got a fragile nose, but the air pressure on the nostrils is definitely not good for me.

Perhaps so, but you're the first person I remember ever seeing saying they had this issue... the pressure from cpap is just a tiny fraction of one psi...

Totally agree with this.. The xPAP pressure isn't what is hurting your nose...

I know this thread seems to be old, but I found it after just switching to nasal pillows. And thank goodness I did. My nose was extremely sore during the night while using the pillows so I found this thread and used an organic chapstick type of product. It works great! I was like instant relief. Thankful to have found this.

drewcool wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:43 am

I know this thread seems to be old, but I found it after just switching to nasal pillows. And thank goodness I did. My nose was extremely sore during the night while using the pillows so I found this thread and used an organic chapstick type of product. It works great! I was like instant relief. Thankful to have found this.

always good to hear that someone has found help on the forum.

it's funny. we mock users for answering old threads. then we mock users for NOT using the search function!

Are you saying we are supposed to use the search function, but not tell anyone about it?