Is mouth breathing an issue using a Full Face Mask?

[pitman]

Is mouth breathing an issue if I am using a FF mask? Just want to make sure becasue my sleep is not good and I am trying all possible areas of issue. Thanks

[robysue1]

The whole purpose behind a full face mask is to allow the user to breathe through his/her mouth without any loss of pressure.

So in principle there's nothing wrong with breathing through your mouth while using a full face mask.

There are two caveats however:

1) (The less serious caveat). Mouth breathing even in a full face mask can lead to more problems with a dry mouth, even if you use a heated humidifier. For many people, the problems with dry mouth are not particularly bothersome. For others, it can be an issue. Should you find that you have dry mouth problems while using a full face mask, post here asking for help. There are a number of ways to deal with the problem.

2) (The more serious caveat) There may be a significant leak problem for some people who mouth breathe while using a full face mask. As long as the leaks do not stay in the official "large leak" territory for long periods of the night, the leaks won't affect the efficacy of the CPAP therapy. But they may affect the quality of your sleep simply because many people are bothered by even small, low level leaks. Leaks can be noisy, even when they're small. Or they can blow air into your eyes, even when they're small. And leaks might also aggravate any problems with a dry mouth that you might be having.

You should get into the habit of monitoring the leak rate while using your machine. This is true of any CPAPer, not just those using a full face mask. If the leaks stay below the official "large leak" territory and you're sleeping fine, then it's ok to just ignore any leaks that you see in the data. But if you're not sleeping fine and you see a lot of leaks, then it's worth asking the question, "Are the leaks disturbing my sleep?" And if your leaks are in official "large leak" territory for extended periods of time almost every single night, you need to do something about them because that's when the leaks start to render CPAP therapy less than effective.

[pitman]

Thank you for your support answering my question!