Chin strap or pressure adjust

[TCL1962]

I have been on my Cpap for about 6 months now. When I first got it after my sleep study the pressure was set at 6-12. After my first follow up visit with my doctor (about a month), he said I was at 10 most of the night so he raised my setting to 10-15.

Before he raised my settingsI felt like my Cpap was really helping. Since then I have not felt as rested and noticed that I sometimes wake up during the night with extremely dry mouth. This is not all the time but several times a night most nights.

Before Cpap I would wake up sopping wet and in a state of near panic. The sweating is completely gone but I do still occasionally wake up with anxiety although not nearly as bad. This could be work related as it happens more when I am stressed but I also wonder if opening my mouth is causing the Cpap to be less effective.

I was just about to order a chin strap when I began to wonder if maybe the higher pressure was forcing my mouth open.

I know I should go back to my doctor, but before I do I wanted to see what others here have experienced.

I have the software and can look at the numbers but I am not really sure what I am looking at. Here is the overview of the statistics tab for the last 149 days.

[Julie]

Higher pressures (even if they're not 'high') can turn anyone into a mouth breather, so you would need to look at either an FFM, a strap that's effective (not all are as lips can still open), or taping. Btw, I might turn my low pressure # to 8 or 9, to allow for nights when you don't hit 10 a lot (like me!), but leave the high # as is.

[avi123]

your statistics are very nice! the machine is taking care of almost all of your events. since your 95% percentile leak is so low you might not need a chinstrap, unless it goes higher. so far it seems that you don't open your mouth wide needing a chinstrap.

Your pressures are very close to my.

See my Stats for a full one year:



You can see that my chinstrap helped me keep even the maximum leak to below the 24 L/Min which is the allowed maximum limit for Resmed machines. But the chinstrap is NOT comfortable.

[musculus]

Chin strap is good for seal the mouth. It works best with a good bite (teeth).

I have been on my Cpap for about 6 months now. When I first got it after my sleep study the pressure was set at 6-12. After my first follow up visit with my doctor (about a month), he said I was at 10 most of the night so he raised my setting to 10-15.

Before he raised my settingsI felt like my Cpap was really helping. Since then I have not felt as rested and noticed that I sometimes wake up during the night with extremely dry mouth. This is not all the time but several times a night most nights.

Before Cpap I would wake up sopping wet and in a state of near panic. The sweating is completely gone but I do still occasionally wake up with anxiety although not nearly as bad. This could be work related as it happens more when I am stressed but I also wonder if opening my mouth is causing the Cpap to be less effective.

I was just about to order a chin strap when I began to wonder if maybe the higher pressure was forcing my mouth open.

I know I should go back to my doctor, but before I do I wanted to see what others here have experienced.

I have the software and can look at the numbers but I am not really sure what I am looking at. Here is the overview of the statistics tab for the last 149 days.

[Lukie]

I have small lip flutters during the night. They wake me up so I tear a Listerine Breath strip in half and place the halves on my moistened lips and keep it there all night. It makes a seal that is not to strong that you can't break it if you need to if the power goes off. Works great.

[TCL1962]

So I decided to lower my bottom pressure and see what happened. I usually go through most of a 24oz glass of water at night due to dry mouth. I barely drank anything last night and feel like I slept better.

I am going to leave it starting at 8 and see what happens over the next few nights, but I hope I am on to something here.

Here is last nights stats as well as the chart for long term. You can see that while my 95% pressure stayed about the same, my median was lower. Does this mean that I was lower most of the night?

[Julie]

Hope Pugsy comes along soon because not having your machine, I don't quite understand the median vs 95th% stuff either, and not in relation to possible centrals (of which it looks like you have none to speak of).

[Pugsy]

Any 95% number...be it leak or pressure (90% number is what Respironics will use on Encore) just means we were AT OR BELOW that number for 90/95% of the night. People tend to forget the "or below" part of the definition and assume that 90/95 means we were at that number and that's not what it means. 90/95% numbers are easily skewed on a short term basis...nightly...due to any number of things...a big leak maybe that is short term in duration or pressure needs that are higher short term.

my median was lower. Does this mean that I was lower most of the night?

I believe that the median average number just means 50% above and 50% below that number.

The fact that it is lower with the lower minimum is mostly just a by product of the lower minimum and doesn't really mean anything earth shattering.

[TCL1962]

Thanks everyone. I am going to try this for s few nights and see. I felt better this morning than usual but only time will tell.

My next step will be to try the Listerine strips. I do believe that I don't actually open my mouth but rather air just blows out between my lips. Sounds like an interesting solution and I will wake with good breath

[avi123]

In my opinion you don't have any problems with leaks. I don't set the pressures on my APAP by relating to leaks but I set the pressures so that the pressure graph is confined nicely within the two limit lines of maximum and minimum set pressures. The pressure graph is close but does not hug any of these lines. This lets the machine work more efficiently. It does not allow the machine to raise the pressure suddenly for no reason and give me central events. Also, by having the minimum pressure close to the actual therapeutic pressure, the machine does not waste time responding.