Mouth Taping and Not Suffocating

[RomanDelta]

Hi All,

Tried to switch from FFM to Nasal mask last night to ward off bad air swallowing causing GI issues, and I had success. However, I also kept waking up because my mouth falls open and air shoots out of it, defeating the purpose of therapy. I just can't win

I've seen most people say chin straps do not work for them, and I would agree that it probably wouldn't work for me either. Most that I've read swear by taping the mouth shut, but doctors caution against it, using the reason that if you have a power outage and don't wake up, the buildup of carbon dioxide in your mask (due to reduced speed of air leaving the vent), could cause you to suffocate or fall into coma, since your mouth is taped shut.

My thing is this though: If that is a legit concern, how is that any different than wearing a FFM and having a power outage? If your mouth and nose are inside the mask and you have a power outage, don't you run that same carbon dioxide risk?

So then I considered ordering these, because they say there is an emergency mouth vent, but haven't done it yet because wouldn't an emergency mouth vent defeat the purpose of taping?

https://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Strips-Som ... ooghydr-20

[Okie bipap]

Many people here tape their mouth at night. Your mask will vent the carbon dioxide when the power is off. If you don't believe it, just put the mask on without turning on the machine and try to breathe.

[Pugsy]

If you worry about a power outage just get a power outage alarm/alert.

Something like this
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/relian ... m-powerout

Though the first night I taped my mouth shut we had a thunderstorm and the power went out. I woke up not from discomfort but from the quiet. If you put the mask on and just breathe through the vents without the machine being powered on you will be surprised at how much air gets exchanged. I did that experiment once just to see if I got uncomfortable and I never did. I quit after 30 minutes because I was bored.

[palerider]

My thing is this though: If that is a legit concern, how is that any different than wearing a FFM and having a power outage? If your mouth and nose are inside the mask and you have a power outage, don't you run that same carbon dioxide risk?

Full Face Masks have anti-asphyxiation valves in them that open when the airflow from the machine is off.

As CO2 builds up, your breathing is going to increase in order to try and blow that off. At some point, you should be breathing hard enough that it'll wake you up, and you'll remove the mask... or you'll have opened your mouth in spite of the tape.

While it's entirely possible that people have died because of mouth taping, I've never heard a single reported case.

[zonker]

if one is worried about suffocating with taped lips, may i suggest-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

yup, it's more cumbersome than tape, but very easy to remove. also, it's reusable.

for what it's worth.

[nanwilson]

When I first started my cpap journey I taped up every night ….. now I don't need to since I learned to breathe through my nose .
Just after I started, we had a long power outage and I woke up because I couldn't breathe... at all, took off the mask and noticed "no power". When I looked at my stats next day I saw that I only had the mask on for a few minutes after the power went out. The stats said that the power went off at 12:21 AM and I woke up and looked at the clock it was 12:24 AM. I and a host of others on this site either have taped up or are still tapping today.... none of us died
"Try it you'll like it".
Cheers
Nan

[palerider]

if one is worried about suffocating with taped lips, may i suggest-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

yup, it's more cumbersome than tape,

It is???

[zonker]

if one is worried about suffocating with taped lips, may i suggest-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

yup, it's more cumbersome than tape,

It is???

in size, at least. don't you think?

[Gryphon]

Depending on how you sleep. I've also found that if the power goes out the almost instant drop in pressure from the machine cutting out is jarring enough that it wakes me right up no matter what.

My old Resperonics machine the blower fan would sort of cut of gradually at least compared to my resmed machine I have now. Both the autosence and my bileve the blower fan cuts off almost instantly. Even the more gradually stopping resperonics would wake me if it stopped working.

It feels like the difference from turning off a skill saw and the blade stops spinning very quickly if not instantly like there is a break that stops it when power is taken away vs if the blade was allowed to spin freely off it's own inertia it would still stop spinning rather quickly but more gradually.


Also as others have said full face masks come with little flaps that open up if the air stream cuts out so you get enough fresh air exchanging even if you were to not wake up... for mouth taping I would usualy use one good strip from above the top of the lips under my nose down to about were my chin starts. I can still breathe through my mouth like a brass player but it usualy succeeds in keeping my mouth shut for the most part.

Rest well,

Gryphon

[palerider]

if one is worried about suffocating with taped lips, may i suggest-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

yup, it's more cumbersome than tape,

It is???

in size, at least. don't you think?

Not really, I can easily put on a scunci in the dark, with no trouble, but the tape takes more fiddling, getting the right length, and getting it in the right spot.

[palerider]

it's own inertia it

The Resmed blower is very small, and thus low inertia.

[poppi2]

I’ve taped for many years. Early on, I learned that I don’t always wake up when the power goes off. I have profound hearing loss, and things are already silent after I remove my ear plugs

This is what I did seven years ago.

Edit: Adding anti-asphyxiation to nasal pillow:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=75419&p=874430&hili ... on#p874430

[shlinder]

Not sure what kind of tape you're using, but when I taped my mouth shut, I could still breath in on both sides of my mouth if needed. Big smile!

But like others above, I stopped using it after a while as it helped train me to breathe through my nose.

[nicholasjh1]

For some it has nothing to do with breathing through the mouth.. For me at least I just leak out of the mouth while breathing through the nose sometimes... like not all the air gets in lungs and some makes it out of the mouth.

[zonker]

For some it has nothing to do with breathing through the mouth.. For me at least I just leak out of the mouth while breathing through the nose sometimes... like not all the air gets in lungs and some makes it out of the mouth.

thanks for pointing this out. it's another thing that doesn't get said enough. hell, i keep telling new users that we are all different in how we sleep and react to cpap. and yet, whenever i see mention of mouth breathing, i think everyone is like me.

good catch.