TAP PAP and High pressures

[Nanny671]

I have an IPAP of 20 with my EPAP of 15. Has anyone with similar pressures tried the new TAP PAP mask? Seriously thinking of trying it. I have been using nasal pillows for about 6 months, but have to keep straps fairly tight to hold mask in place. I have tried a full face, total full face and a hybrid. I have a drawer full of CPAP masks and different sizes of nasal pillows to fit various masks. My pressures should be set at 24/19, but can't keep mask in place even tying them down with a strip of hosiery. Boy, the fun life of a CPAP user.

[Pugsy]

You know the Tap Pap comes with free return insurance from cpap.com...even shipping back to them is free because they will send you a link to a label you can print off to send it back.

I use a BiPap in auto mode and while my base pressures are around 10/14 I do sometimes hit 20 with the IPAP.
Last week I had a night where I hit 20 with 16 EPAP for a 2 hours stretch in the middle of the night and a one hour stretch at the end of the night. I never knew it till I saw the report. Had one very short lived large spike in the leak line which was probably brief mouth opening.

The way the nasal pillows are supported in the nostrils is more forgiving IMHO. Meaning I can make them a little snugger without piggy nose or discomfort so there is much less chance of them being blown out with higher pressures. They just don't move around as much and in fact for me the nasal pillows simply don't move around at all.

I think that with the support that is offered with the Tap Pap that they should be especially stable with higher pressures. The support barrel is rigid plastic. I do suggest going up a size though...these seem to run a bit small or at least they did for me. I did well with the XSmall and Small Swift FX and found that I do better with the Medium in the Tap Pap.
Here's that night I mentioned. The spike to 90...I imagine mouth opening though I can't be sure but you can see that things are fairly stable most of the night with the leaks. I do know that sometimes I do open my mouth a little. I have never had the nasal pillows pop out of place though.

[khauser]

I use an APAP so my max tops out at 20. That said, I have hit that max, and often spend my sleeping time in the range of 17-18.

The Tap Pap is the ONLY mask I have tried that handles this with almost no leakage. Every now and then I can sense a leak. I have to be awake and thinking about it, and this would be such a small leak that I have to wonder if the machine even detects it as a leak. (Judging from my leakage data, no, it does not.)

The fact that this device is stabilized by the same bone mass as your nose instead of by springy material makes it such a far superior design to anything else out there. You don't need tight ... tight is needed when the hose can cause the mask to drift a little. There is NO drifting on this mask. I can lay on my side with the mask half-buried in the pillow and there is ZERO increase in leakage. (The noise from the vent hitting the pillow makes this a less than desirable position, but it is amazing how stable the mask is ... and I don't want you to think the vent is noisy ... it is silent. Only the item I might point the vent at makes any noise. Like the cat, for instance!)

You would think I was paid to support the mask. I am not ... I am just a severely impressed and satisfied customer.

FYI, I have tried about 5 other masks overs the years. Some were more stable than others, but nothing like the Tap Pap. I even tried CpapPro (http://www.nomask.com). It's another ... possibly the first dental-stabilized CPAP interface. Unfortunately that design still lets the hose put pressure on the mask, so for me it actually leaked far worse than a traditional mask, and it was a complete waste of time and money.