How to tell if your leaking out your mouth?

[sleepycarol]

I have been using an Optilife nasal mask and was wondering how I would know if I am leaking out my mouth. I haven't had a really bad dry mouth when I wake up and have been tracking my data. It showed last night that I had a 3 minute large leak and an AHI of 1.4. I have had the AHI less than 1 since using Optilife.

[jules]

what is your overall leak rate?

what does a graph of your leaks look like?

If you have a lot of spikes up and down you might be mouth breathing? Ideally the leak graph should be a straight line with a few possible small bumps up and down

[hairnet]

I am using the Soyala Nasal Mask and my pressure is set at 8. I tape my mouth so I feel like I am not mouth breathing but my leak rate is above what it should be and there are quite a few spikes. My AHI stays under 3 so do I need to worry about the leak rate?

[jules]

I get spikes with the soyala too but what is your average leak rate? It should be still in the 20's.

How often does the leak rate go up to or over 50? You can have big leaks with the soyala when the ball for the elbow (hose connector) is out of line in the socket.

If you are having big leaks your machine will not respond to events and the AHI your machine is reporting might be a lot less than your real AHI.

If you are having big leaks you need to determine if it is mouth leaking (which can still happen with tape) or the mask leaking in front (big problem I find with soyala).

[DreamStalker]

I have been using an Optilife nasal mask and was wondering how I would know if I am leaking out my mouth. I haven't had a really bad dry mouth when I wake up and have been tracking my data. It showed last night that I had a 3 minute large leak and an AHI of 1.4. I have had the AHI less than 1 since using Optilife.

You want to go with the average leak and not worry too much about large leaks ... unless you have lots of them and they all correspond to OAI/HI events -- then you need to take caer of them. Your average leak value should be about the same as the leak rate designed for your mask at your average pressure.

[sleepycarol]

The average is staying fairly consistent from the looks of the chart. I will keep using the Optilife and comparing data.

[Goofproof]

Two ways to see if you are mouth leaking, put on the mask and look in the mirror, if the mask doesn't cover your mouth and nose, you may be mouth leaking.

Get the software and look at the data, it pretty much shows you when things go wrong. A higher leak rate will show up as will a increase in events.

The way to be sure is use a good fitting FF Mask and compare the data. Jim

[Dgrendahl]

Hmm. If I take a deep breath, will that show up on the leak graph as a spike?

[Goofproof]

Hmm. If I take a deep breath, will that show up on the leak graph as a spike?

Machine data is useless, unless you are asleep, when we are awake we don't have sleep apnea.

When we are awake and playing games with our machines our brains control our breathing, when we sleep our breathing is controlled in a different way, sort of on Autopilot.

[jules]

Hmm. If I take a deep breath, will that show up on the leak graph as a spike?

Probably not - look at how many pixels on your screen represent an hour? The graphs aren't breath by breath by any means (or no breath by no breath if you prefer).

We already know the programmers at Respironics don't do math well (all the round off errors which get magnified in the averages). There is no reason to expect they wrote the part for the graphs to show every event and every breath and there is no way to show every breath.

What the graphs show are trends and some / many of the events.

[sleepycarol]

How would I find the leak rate for the Optilife?

I taped my mouth last night and the data was consistent with previous nights (except for the one night where I had a large leak that lasted approximately 3 minutes and could have been from where my mask became dislodged).

Maybe I am worrying too much .

I do like the Optilife and it is better than the Fisher and Paykel 431 as far as bulk on the face goes .

Thanks for your input.

[Wulfman]

How would I find the leak rate for the Optilife?

I taped my mouth last night and the data was consistent with previous nights (except for the one night where I had a large leak that lasted approximately 3 minutes and could have been from where my mask became dislodged).

Maybe I am worrying too much .

I do like the Optilife and it is better than the Fisher and Paykel 431 as far as bulk on the face goes .

Thanks for your input.

There is SUPPOSED to be a chart (?) that comes with each mask.....may be in the user's manual.


Den

[socknitster]

[quote="sleepycarol"]How would I find the leak rate for the Optilife?

I taped my mouth last night and the data was consistent with previous nights (except for the one night where I had a large leak that lasted approximately 3 minutes and could have been from where my mask became dislodged).

Maybe I am worrying too much .

I do like the Optilife and it is better than the Fisher and Paykel 431 as far as bulk on the face goes .

Thanks for your input.

[betty303]

Here is a link to leak rates for some of the more commonly used masks.

http://www.internetage.com/cpapinfo/leak-rates-1.html

[sleepycarol]

There is SUPPOSED to be a chart (?) that comes with each mask.....may be in the user's manual.


Den

Thanks I got out my booklet and found it.