Help Please! Need Feedback from TOTAL Facemask Users

[teachcsg]

Your husband has the toughest face / problems to deal with as a respiratory therapist. High bridge plus they NEED a full face mask because they cant use pillows etc..
When faced with a patient like your husbands we do go with the Fitlife...my only problem is that it tends to leak on the forehead section...right in the middle. And you cant tighten anymore because that does not seem to stop that particular leak.
I did have a very experienced therapist tell me once that up north where she came from they would use a type of plumbers putting (not plumbers putting) but something similar that they would use to occlude small leaks like that one on the Fit life. Almost like using clay to occlude openings in the mask. I have never tried it and have never really advocated it but I have always remembered that advice since patients like your husband sometimes that is the only thing they can do.
If anyone here on this forum has tried or heard of this maybe they can share what they use...

[archangle]

Have you tried the hybrid yourself? Just curious. I've looked at them at cpap.com & it looks interesting (except, of course, for the deviated septum issue you know about).

I haven't ever had a hybrid mask, but I did end up with an oracle oral mask. I normally use a ComfortGel Blue nasal mask, and that works well for me.

It looks like an oral mask would require some noseplugs (which I seriously doubt he'd "cotton to").

In theory, no. Try this. Act like you're blowing up a balloon, but keep your lips together and just fill your mouth with pressurized air. Notice that you don't have to pinch your nose together, but no air comes out of nose. There's a valve at the back of your nose that you can close off.

The trick is to do this in your sleep. What I did was to put on the oral mask, turn it on, and blow into the mask like I was blowing up a balloon, then relax and let the pressure keep my nose sealed off. I found that the pressure in my throat would help hold the valve in my nose closed without any conscious effort on my part.

I was never able to sleep very well with it, but I don't think keeping my nose closed would have been a problem.

As I said, it's a bit hard to get used to the oral mask. The bit in my mouth was a little disturbing. What really kept me awake was the degree to which it dried my throat out. I suspect I would have the same problem with any mask if I couldn't breathe through my nose. I tend to have to sip a lot of water at night even with a nasal mask.

[kerriberri]

Your husband has the toughest face / problems to deal with as a respiratory therapist. High bridge plus they NEED a full face mask because they cant use pillows etc..
When faced with a patient like your husbands we do go with the Fitlife...

Thank you VERY much for your info & "leak-plugging" suggestions. I'll pass this on to him; thanks again!

[kerriberri]

It looks like an oral mask would require some noseplugs (which I seriously doubt he'd "cotton to").

In theory, no. Try this. Act like you're blowing up a balloon, but keep your lips together and just fill your mouth with pressurized air. Notice that you don't have to pinch your nose together, but no air comes out of nose. There's a valve at the back of your nose that you can close off.

The trick is to do this in your sleep.

Thanks for the helpful input, Archangel. I think hubby just won't be able to take the mouthpiece discomfort of the oral mask.

It's SO unfortunate he keeps having the nose problem, because he really likes his Amara mask. Lately, he's been doing his best to mitigate the nose issue, in the hopes this area will "toughen up" over time. I sincerely doubted this would happen, but he may be proven right, in time. We've been using a padded band-aid, run like a splint up and down his bridge (from forehead down toward nostrils) and this seems to be working better than wearing it like a butterfly/Gecko. There might be just a little bit of extra tension on the mask this way, distributing the downward force of the mask's nosepiece over a larger area of his nose.

Much to my surprise, each day, this area's looking just a little less irritated first thing in the morning, which feels like real progress. He's also figured out that the default position of the headgear is a friction problem, so he's wearing the headgear a little differently than the way it was designed.

Only time will tell; thank you for your suggestions!