Question on Mask Fit

[tammy1001]

Hey all, simple question:

Will the Mask fit or Mask Seal reading indicate whether I am breathing through my mouth when I just have nasal pillow? My reading has always been 100% but I sometimes wake up with really dry lips which I would have thought suggests breathing through the mouth?



Thanks

[chunkyfrog]

Just dry lips?
Mouth breathing often dries more than just lips.

[Pugsy]

Mask seal numbers may not reflect mouth breathing in total if the mouth breathing is minimal and/or sporadic.
It doesn't take much mouth breathing to dry out the lips or mouth.
Also the mask fit numbers rely on the baseline of going into large leak territory before you get dinged and we can have some mouth breathing and it doesn't necessarily mean we have ventured into large leak territory.

Just because someone does a little mouth breathing doesn't automatically mean that they go into large leak territory with the mouth breathing.

Finally...there are also other reasons for dry mouth and/or dry lips besides mouth breathing.
Medication side effects, overall hydration, etc.

A while back I woke up one morning mouth breathing...gentle mouth breathing and no tornado of air out my mouth.
Just gentle mouth breathing. Since it was near time to get up anyway I decided to just lay there for a little while and continue the mouth breathing so that I could see on the leak graph just how bad it affected things.
Below is that graph...I circled the time at the end of the night with known awake mouth breathing. It is obviously minimal and would not have been flagged in the mask fit numbers because it never even went close to 24 L/min which is the line in the sand for leak management. So...not enough to impact the mask fit leak numbers but potentially enough to impact dry mouth or dry lips.

You can't really go totally by the mask fit leak numbers except to know that the leaks aren't bad enough to impact therapy itself. 5 minutes of mouth breathing can dry things out even if it is minimal like mine below.
BTW the bigger leaks earlier in the night....dunno what happened there...mask probably move would be my best guess.
I slept through it.

[tammy1001]

Wow. Thanks for the in depth reply, with graphs to back up the argument! If only the rest of the internet was like this

Ok I feel better now. I think I might be in the same position with just a tiny amount of air coming out of the mouth and you are both right, it wouldn't take much of that in the night to get dry lips. At this stage I dont think its worth testing a full face mask just over this.


Cheers

[loggerhead12]

A while back I woke up one morning mouth breathing...gentle mouth breathing and no tornado of air out my mouth.
Just gentle mouth breathing. Since it was near time to get up anyway I decided to just lay there for a little while and continue the mouth breathing so that I could see on the leak graph just how bad it affected things.
Below is that graph...I circled the time at the end of the night with known awake mouth breathing. It is obviously minimal and would not have been flagged in the mask fit numbers because it never even went close to 24 L/min which is the line in the sand for leak management. So...not enough to impact the mask fit leak numbers but potentially enough to impact dry mouth or dry lips.

That's really interesting. I started out as a mouth breather and used a chin/head strap thing to keep my mouth closed, but kind of inadvertently trained myself to do without it. I had zero leaks for almost two years.

Then I started taking some pain medication for a back issue and noticed that I was drowsy during the day. Digging into Oscar a little bit I noticed low-level leaks dating back to the exact day I started taking the Codeine. Out came the chin strap to resolve that issue.

It's amazing how little leakage it takes to mess up your sleep, way less than these machines consider large leaks that would affect the therapy.

[zonker]

Wow. Thanks for the in depth reply, with graphs to back up the argument! If only the rest of the internet was like this

this isn't the "rest of the internet". here, we try to deal in facts, no matter whose feelings get hurt.

[clownbell]

I second Zonker's remarks. Back in the day (1950s-70s) Joe Friday was a fictional detective on the tv show named "Dragnet." One of his signature lines was - - "just the facts, ma'am, just the facts." That's the spirit here.

[tammy1001]

Yeh there was a comedy remake of Dragnet in the 80s I remember as well making fun of it.