Keeping your mouth shut. Literally

[chirurgeon]

How do you keep your mouth closed when you use a nasal mask/pillow? I've looked at chin straps on cpap.com and they just don't seem like my cup of tea. Some one mentioned tape. Last night was really back and forth according to my fitbit (I still haven't figured out where the sd port is on my machine to get the stats off it) I don't know if I was mouth breathing and therefore defeating the purpose.

[JDS74]

The SD card slot is right next to the place where to power cord plugs in and is just at the top of the machine.

Have you tried a soft cervical collar? It will support your jaw and help prevent jaw drop.

[Tino2You]

I had a difficult time keeping my mouth closed at night. I bought a Ruby Style Chin strap (now 15 bucks at CPAP.COM) I wore it every night for about 4 months, setting it to be more loose every week or so. I inadvertently left it behind at my cabin one weekend. I found out that by then it was just a gentle reminder and I could do without it. I have not worn it in over a year.

Remember, YMMV;

-tino

[avi123]

If you keep your mouth completely closed by using tape on your lips, for example, then you'll increase the air pressure of the ingested air in your abdomen (Aerophagia) which is dangerous. Some air needs to come out thru your mouth or nose. Use a chinstrap but not tight. Then some air could come out thru you lips. The purpose of the chinstrap is to stop you from opening your mouth WIDE open.

[chirurgeon]

The SD card slot is right next to the place where to power cord plugs in and is just at the top of the machine.

My machine has the modem on it, I think the sd slot is covered by that.

[JDS74]

Yep, but you can remove the modem to gain access and then reinstall it.

Here is a link.

http://www.healthcare.philips.com/main/ ... p/modems/#
From there is a link to a video.

[Pugsy]

If you are afraid to mess with the modem you can access some data on the machine's LCD display though the DME may have turned it off in the clinical menu.
Check out this page and the video
http://www.apneaboard.com/pr-system-one ... structions
To see what the data shows on the machine's LCD display the "Show AHI" menu option must be set to on.

Once you figure out how to see the data that the machine shows..1/7/30 day averages for AHI, and % of time in large leak..
the % of time in large leak is what you can look at to get an idea if your possible mouth breathing is impacting therapy all that much. If it is 0.0 or a single digit number then you aren't spending much time in large leak territory and if you are sleeping well then mouth breathing (if you are doing it) may be minimal and thus not impacting therapy all that much.
Now if the % of time in large leak is in the double digits then maybe we should look at the software leak report to see when it is occurring and how much for sure and then decide if you need to maybe tape your mouth or use some sort of chin strap.
A little mouth breathing isn't the end of the world and doesn't mean that the total night's therapy is in the toilet.
It might be that only 15 minutes is in the toilet and I don't care if 15 to 30 minutes is in the toilet out of 6 to 8 hours of good sleep otherwise as long as leaks don't wake a person up.

[flyingwithoutwings]

the % of time in large leak is what you can look at to get an idea if your possible mouth breathing is impacting therapy all that much. If it is 0.0 or a single digit number then you aren't spending much time in large leak territory and if you are sleeping well then mouth breathing (if you are doing it) may be minimal and thus not impacting therapy all that much.
A little mouth breathing isn't the end of the world and doesn't mean that the total night's therapy is in the toilet.
It might be that only 15 minutes is in the toilet and I don't care if 15 to 30 minutes is in the toilet out of 6 to 8 hours of good sleep otherwise as long as leaks don't wake a person up.

OMG you have just put ME at ease. I have gotten so dense lately that I don't get why I can't understand Sleepyhead. My machine always shows 0% in large leak but then every once in a while Sleephead will show Total Leak 45/64 and I'm wondering why my machine showed 0%. Duh! Wonder when PAP therapy is going to start clearing my brain.

[chirurgeon]

I checked the readings on the cpap. The AHI shows .7 for the last week. Large leak is 0%, so maybe I'm not mouth breathing too much.

[Pugsy]

Your machine reports Total Leak and total leak includes the mask's expect vent rate at your pressure(s). If using auto adjusting mode and the pressure fluctuates then so will total leak because more pressure always equals more vent rate...so some variations you might see in the leak line or leak numbers could simply be vent rate varying if pressures vary.

If the worst your leak ever goes to is 65 L/min then you are well below large leak territory...for your machine somewhere between 80 and 90 L/min depending on mask and pressure used.

Don't try to compare your leak numbers with a ResMed S9 user's leak numbers because the S9 removes an estimated vent rate before reporting the leak. You won't ever see a 0.0 in the total leak column because vent rate is always included in Total leak numbers.

I can usually spot mouth breathing leak (yes, I know for sure I do it on occasion) by what it looks like on the leak graph but since I rarely get to large leak territory with my leaks (no matter what the cause) or if I do get to large leak territory I don't stay there long....and those leaks don't wake me up...and I feel fine...I don't really care if I spend a short period of time in large leak. I could use tape or a chin strap if I was anal about a flat leak line but those annoyances would disturb my sleep for sure (been there and done both) and since good sleep is my primary goal and not a perfect math score I have elected to ignore big leaks that are short lived. The cure is worse than the disease and I sure am not going to go with a full face mask just for fixing maybe 15 minutes of mouth breathing in large leak territory that might happen once a week.

Large leak is 0%, so maybe I'm not mouth breathing too much.

Not all mouth breathing automatically means therapy is in the toilet. The machine will do a good job of compensating for leaks (no matter what the cause) up until you go into large leak territory. If you don't spend any time in large leak territory then the machine will be able to take care of whatever leaks you are having from whatever cause.
I once woke up and I was mouth breathing very gently. Mouth was dry. I decided to continue breathing like that just to see what it registered on the leak graph as a way of seeing how high it went. So I lay there and continued to breath through my mouth and when I went to look at the leak graph the change in the leak graph was so small that if I hadn't known I was mouth breathing I never would have thought it ever happened. The leak graph didn't change 5 L/min during that last 25 minutes of sleep from what it had been and I was using the S9 at the time..so it had been flat at 0.0.

Now not all people who mouth breathe will have such a small amount of leak show up on the graphs but since I know it is possible that not all mouth breathing means someone just has wasted all their therapy pressure by mouth breathing...I tell people before going to extra measures to prevent the mouth breathing...make sure the mouth breathing is really a problem first.
Evaluate the leak line graph first before taping, or using a chin strap or buying a full face mask (that someone might not want) unless leaks/mouth breathing are actually waking a person up and then of course they must be dealt with because they are disturbing sleep itself but not because therapy is necessarily in the toilet.