Nasal pillows vs nasal mask for mouth leak

[Ryan D]

If this is a crazy question please forgive me but would there be any chance I may not leak air through my mouth at night if I tried a nasal mask rather than pillows? I wonder if anyone has any experience in one over the other for leaks.

[Wulfman...]

Why not just use a full face mask?
I've read about so many people claiming to be claustrophobic with full face masks, but by the time they get done applying tape or mouth guards and all the other paraphernalia it's going to take to keep their mouths shut, it would seem that all that other stuff would cause much more claustrophobia than just using a FFM.


Den

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[ramblingasian]

If you don't cover your mouth somehow (whether it be with a full-face mask, tape, chin strap, etc...) with the effectiveness of the last two options being questioned, your mouth will still leak.

Neither nasal pillows or nasal masks solve mouth leak on it's own, if that's what you're asking.

[49er]

If this is a crazy question please forgive me but would there be any chance I may not leak air through my mouth at night if I tried a nasal mask rather than pillows? I wonder if anyone has any experience in one over the other for leaks.

Not a crazy question at all Ryan. In spite of having a septoplasty, I still find breathing through nasal pillows very difficult. I am sure if I tried them, I would have problems with mouth breathing that I don't have when using my elan cloth nasal mask.

And even though I found the nasal zest mask uncomfortable for various reasons, I had no problems with leaks.

The only way you are going to find out is try a nasal mask to see if it works for you. And as always, one might be preferable to another one as I certainly have found out.

49er

[49er]

Why not just use a full face mask?
I've read about so many people claiming to be claustrophobic with full face masks, but by the time they get done applying tape or mouth guards and all the other paraphernalia it's going to take to keep their mouths shut, it would seem that all that other stuff would cause much more claustrophobia than just using a FFM.


Den

.

Great points Den. If for some reason, I started mouth leaking again, I would try tape since that doesn't make me claustrophobic. But I think the combination of anything else with a mask would be too much for me and would lead me back to FF masks.

49er

[wknclasdog]

I used a full face mask for 7 years. When I recently did a sleep study to get a new machine I tried the nasal pillow mask. I thought it went ok but when I got my new machine and tried the new nasal pillow I found it was too much of a pain to get it adjusted just right and the weight of the hose kind of moved it. Then I tried the other nasal pillow mask that actually go up you nostril a little bit. I liked it but it made you nostrol flair out and I was afraid it was going to make them get bigger over time, my nose is big enough as it is. I settled on the AirFit N10 which just goes over your nose. I have had no problem with mouth breathing at all. The results I got for events per hour were well under 5 per hour. With the full face mask with this machine I was getting 18, 16 and 15 events per hour. That's the number of apnea's per hour. So I'm sold on the AirFit N10 and I'm getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. And I have dreams every night so I know I'm in a deep sleep. Hope this helps someone. PS the machine I got was the ResMed Airsense 10 Elite.