How to prevent Mouth Draw +Leaks

[ejbpesca]

By suggestion I'm posting this topic. Mouth breathing causes extreme dry mouth with cpap therapy for me. I've not heard of "mouth draw," until today. I guess that is open mouth breathing. I've three brands of medical tape without success. Even with multiple strips, my jaw will pull open my mouth during sleep. A cervical collar does not hold my mouth shut either. Any suggestions?

I use an AirFit F10 mask and also have leak problems. I think those may come from movement during sleep. I pull it tighter and tighter, clean it, and reposition it trying to stop leaks but never with total success. I tried an F20 but it caused a rash. The F10 was the best out of 5 mask models. It does not cause mouth draw...just adding a problem to this post for additional suggestions. It is size L even though I measure closer to size M. M had even more leak problems and felt too small in coverage. I find the mask creeps up so I'm many times pulling it out and down to reposition it to seal, even though it is pulled tight to my face. Any new mask models that seal better you may suggest?

[ChicagoGranny]

I've not heard of "mouth draw," until today.

There is a reason why you have not heard of it until today. It's not a thing.

https://www.google.com/search?client=av ... 1&ie=UTF-8

[chunkyfrog]

Somebody be pullin' yo leg . . .
My people are very jumpy about this sort of thing.

[robysue1]

By suggestion I'm posting this topic. Mouth breathing causes extreme dry mouth with cpap therapy for me. I've not heard of "mouth draw," until today. I guess that is open mouth breathing. I've three brands of medical tape without success. Even with multiple strips, my jaw will pull open my mouth during sleep. A cervical collar does not hold my mouth shut either. Any suggestions?

Sounds like your mouth is bound and determined to sag open regardless of what you do. That's a bummer.

I use an AirFit F10 mask and also have leak problems. I think those may come from movement during sleep. I pull it tighter and tighter, clean it, and reposition it trying to stop leaks but never with total success. I tried an F20 but it caused a rash. The F10 was the best out of 5 mask models. It does not cause mouth draw...just adding a problem to this post for additional suggestions. It is size L even though I measure closer to size M. M had even more leak problems and felt too small in coverage. I find the mask creeps up so I'm many times pulling it out and down to reposition it to seal, even though it is pulled tight to my face. Any new mask models that seal better you may suggest?

It sounds to me like you are over tightening the mask in an effort to prevent all leaking. With air cushion masks, the mask should not be "pulled tight against the face"---when the mask is pulled to tight against the face, the air cushion cannot fully inflate, and a fully inflated air cushion provides the most robust seal during the night.

So I think you need to start with rethinking how you are fitting the mask. I would suggest that you do the following well away from bedtime.

1) Start completely over in terms of positioning the straps. In other words, undo them completely and then reattach rather loosely.

2) Lie down in your preferred position for getting to sleep. Put the mask on and adjust the straps where they are still loose enough for you to pull the mask cushion away from your face.

3) Turn on the mask fit feature on your machine so the pressure is at full therapeutic pressure. Now gently pull the mask away from your face just a tiny bit. Be prepared for a lot of hissing and air flow. Once the mask is a fraction of an inch away from your face, let go of the mask and allow it to settle back onto your face all by itself. If there are leaks around the edge of the mask, consider adjusting the appropriate strap or straps. Here's where you need to do a bit of thinking outside the box. For example, if the mask is leaking near the top on the right, you may need to figure out if the mask got pushed out of place by how you're lying in bed. You may find that you will need to tighten one of the straps while at the same time loosening the corresponding strap on the other side of the mask. You may also find that you need to loosen the strap closest to the leak and tighten one of the straps further away from the leak, even though that seems counter-intuitive. Every time you adjust the straps, try pulling the mask gently away from your face and letting it go so the cushion can settle back on your face. That's really the only way to tell if a strap adjustment has actually helped the leak problem.

4) Once you think you've got a decent seal, open your mouth and see if that causes leaks to start up. First see if gently lifting the mask off your face and letting it resettle of its own accord fixes the leaks. If not, then try readjusting the straps while your mouth is open. Again, think about loosening straps as well as tightening them. And think about whether an asymmetrical position for the straps works better than a symmetrical one. Again, every time you make an adjustment to the straps, be sure to pull the mask away from your face and let it resettle on your face by itself after you let go of the cushion.

5) Now start moving around in the bed trying to mimic what you do during the night and in your sleep. When you trigger a leak, you want to first of all try to fix the leak while in the position that triggered the leak. Start by just pulling the cushion away from your face for just enough to trigger a lot of air flow. Then once the cushion has had a chance to inflate, let go and see if it resettles on your face with little or no leaks. Resist the urge to just tighten the heck out of the straps. The goal here is to see if you can train yourself to quickly fix a leak by pulling the mask cushion away from your face and letting it go so it can resettle on your face of its own accord. If that's all that's needed to fix a leak that happens when you turn over in bed, then you can learn to do that without waking fully up every time you turn over and the mask starts to leak.

[ejbpesca]

Thank you for the suggestions.