Mouth Breathing??

[HookEarMatt]

Hey Folks, I've gotten some good advice here in the past so I'm hoping to get some more.

I've been using CPAP for roughly a month or so now with I would say average success. For the most part I can get through most of the night with my Flexi fit nasal mask. Typically I take it off around 5 AM or so ( I wake up at six, and go to bed at 11...and usually fall asleep by 11:30). Now aside from mask leaking which seems to happen nightly and require constant adjusting of the straps or tucking the silcon covering in, I seem to be waking up every morning feeling like something small and foul has been nesting in my mouth all night. I'm also not really feeling all that well rested, but I am uncertian if that is related to possible mouth breathing, or I'm just still getting caught up on sleep. On the plus side I think I am dreaming more, and on nights where I dont put the mask on I feel like crap when I wake up.

Are these signs of mouth breathing? My sleep study didnt indicate that would be an issue, and if I am mouth breathing do I have to break down and get a bigger mask? Or bother with more straps? What would be the improvements if my mouth were to stay closed? (aside from not feeling like something small and foul was sleeping in my mouth all night?)

Matt

[jimbassett]

I think you pretty well answered your own question. Your therapy is going out in the room thru your mouth. Keeping your mouth closed is a big issue with some people. I am one of those so I have to use a full face mask to keep the pressure where it belongs. There are other ways of keeping it closed such as taping your lips shut. Some use polident strips to hold their lips together. A chin strap alone is not effective for most. It is a trial and error thing. Good luck on stopping your BIG LEAK. jim

[echo]

Sounds like it! Also dry mouth is a good indication too.

If you've got mouth leaking, pretty much all your therapy is going out your mouth (and not towards opening your airway).
It can be that you're not mouth breathing all night, or some pressure is still mangaging to keep your airway somewhat open, so you still feel better with cpap than with none at all.
But as long as you don't fix the mouth leaking, there's no point to the cpap!

Possible options : chinstrap, tape (polident or micropore), self-training, or full face mask.

Your software won't necessarily pick up that you're mouth breathing.

I don't think the sleep labs pay attention to mouth breathing, possibly because on the first night you have the titration they're changing the pressure around anyway, plus your body is still adjusting to the whole thing. I only noticed that I started mouth breathing some time after starting treatment.

[Country4ever]

Ditto to what's been said. Its amazing how useless CPAP is, if its leaking.
I've been having an increase in my leak rate lately and I can sure feel it the rest of the day.
I use a nasal cpap, and am trying different chinstraps. Taping my mouth shut worked well, but causes sinus burning for me, and I just can't stand the polident. Sometimes we have to be really creative at figuring out how to keep our mouths shut! I'm up to that challenge, though, because I really don't want a full face mask. Good luck to you!

[bdp522]

If you want to try taping your mouth shut, here are Roosters instructions. They work great for me!

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Brenda