How do you know if you are a mouth breather?

king_alvaro · Post by **king_alvaro** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:20 pm

I used the resmed fx mask. The one that has nasal pillows. How do you know if you open your mouth while you are asleep? Just in case it helps. My ahi is 1.2, and no dry mouth.

Lizistired · Post by **Lizistired** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:25 pm

I know when I wake up and have to fight to loosen the tissues in my mouth. Like your lips are stuck to your teeth. Sometimes I don't remember it in the morning but when it first started, it wasn't something that you wouldn't notice. Quite scary.

ozze_dollar · Post by **ozze_dollar** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:25 pm

If you had a good sleep last night and your mouth feels fine well then you are not a mouth breather. Lucky you. It took me about 9 months to train myself not to open my mouth and even then its still opens sometimes.

If you are a mouth breather your mouth will be awful and you will start searching for the bird that must have just shit in your mouth.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:16 am

Without using the software to monitor your leaks, (the REAL LEAKS, mask vent rate plus the other leaks) minute by minute. FF mask will bypass the mouthbreathing problem. Jim

Big Steve · Post by **Big Steve** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:27 am

ozze_dollar wrote:If you had a good sleep last night and your mouth feels fine well then you are not a mouth breather. Lucky you. It took me about 9 months to train myself not to open my mouth and even then its still opens sometimes.

If you are a mouth breather your mouth will be awful and you will start searching for the bird that must have just shit in your mouth.

How does someone train themselves not to open their mouth? Last year I starting using an Ultra Mirage FF mask with a CPAP pressure of 18 but I had to go back to using a nasal mask; a Profile Lite. My mouth would be so dry in the morning after using my FF mask that it felt like I had taken a Brillo pad to it. I tried Biotene but it wasn't much help. I still have mouthbreathing issues now that I'm back on my nasal mask but the inside of my mouth doesn't feel like it's been scrubbed to no end. These people who say they can train their mouths not to open; that's a bunch of #%&!#; if your nostrils stop up reflex will kick in forcing your mouth to open so you can breathe.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:20 am

Big Steve wrote:These people who say they can train their mouths not to open; that's a bunch of #%&!#; if your nostrils stop up reflex will kick in forcing your mouth to open so you can breathe.

Those of us who have successfully "trained" our mouths to stay shut (yes, I did it) also don't have nasal congestion problems that would require mouth breathing.
Of course if your nose stops up the mouth will open.
This is why we always ask if someone normally has no issues breathing through there nose all the time.
If someone has a lot of congestion then of course they will likely be needing to breathe through their mask if the congestion is bad and they can't get it cleared up.

ozze_dollar · Post by **ozze_dollar** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:03 am

Big Steve wrote:
ozze_dollar wrote:If you had a good sleep last night and your mouth feels fine well then you are not a mouth breather. Lucky you. It took me about 9 months to train myself not to open my mouth and even then its still opens sometimes.

If you are a mouth breather your mouth will be awful and you will start searching for the bird that must have just shit in your mouth.
How does someone train themselves not to open their mouth? Last year I starting using an Ultra Mirage FF mask with a CPAP pressure of 18 but I had to go back to using a nasal mask; a Profile Lite. My mouth would be so dry in the morning after using my FF mask that it felt like I had taken a Brillo pad to it. I tried Biotene but it wasn't much help. I still have mouthbreathing issues now that I'm back on my nasal mask but the inside of my mouth doesn't feel like it's been scrubbed to no end. These people who say they can train their mouths not to open; that's a bunch of #%&!#; if your nostrils stop up reflex will kick in forcing your mouth to open so you can breathe.

All I can tell you is that I kept on trying to keep it shut and then one day I noticed it was keeping shut.But thats ok you believe what you want.

kempo · Post by **kempo** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:38 am

I know we are all different but if I couldn't use tape I would just throw my s9 in the trash can.

JohnBFisher · Post by **JohnBFisher** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:39 am

As others noted, I did teach myself to keep my mouth closed. Oh, sometimes it would fall open. But I used nasal pillows for years without problems. But as my therapy got more 'interesting', using a nasal only approach became an impossibility. With my current ASV unit the pressure often reaches 25cm H2O. I simply can NOT keep my mouth closed at that pressure. So, I use the Resmed Mirage Quattro FX full face mask.

jacob006a · Post by **jacob006a** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:07 am

I use a chin strap, but it isn't 100% for keeping my mouth closed, I have ordered a second mask and a second chin strap to see if it will be better. Funny when I first started my mouth would stay shut, it is just since I have been using the cpap more that my mouth comes open.

I am reluctent to use a full face mask as the ones I used at my sleep study were ultra uncomfortable.

I have a bad relationship with my original dme so getting a second mask and returning the first mask is not an option.

I have a swift fx and have ordered an aloha mask as a second option at my own expense.

Big Steve · Post by **Big Steve** » Tue May 01, 2012 12:16 am

Well I will say this; having a deviated septum(sp?) on my left side does aggravate me not being able to sleep and breathe through my nose the entire night plus I have to use Nasonex nasal spray to try and keep both nostrils open. There are probably many on this board who are not in the camp of liking to use Nasonex but it does help somewhat and is much better than some of the other brands of nasal spray I have used. Nasalide for example is one of the worst; everytime I used it my nostrils would burn and it also had a nasty taste if any ran down my throat. Nasonex in my opinion is hands down much better than that ?#&*!# nasal spray called Nasalide. To the poster who mentioned using tape across the mouth; I have been reluctant to try it but if you did try it and punched a few small holes in the tape to allow you to breath in case your nose did stop up would that work or pose a danger? I asked my ENT about using tape across my mouth; he said definitely not!

How do you know if you are a mouth breather?

How do you know if you are a mouth breather?

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