Open Mouth

[zaffy47]

I have a nasal mask with a chin strap. I have tried several different masks, but no matter what, at some point in the night my mouth opens. I wake up with a dry mouth or drule. Even with a full mask my mouth opens and also gives dry mouth. Does my mouth being open cancel the effect of the CPAP?

[BleepingBeauty]

I have a nasal mask with a chin strap. I have tried several different masks, but no matter what, at some point in the night my mouth opens. I wake up with a dry mouth or drule. Even with a full mask my mouth opens and also gives dry mouth. Does my mouth being open cancel the effect of the CPAP?

Hi, zaffy.

As we discussed in chat recently, if you're mouth-breathing or -leaking with a nasal mask, you're not maintaining the pressure setting and are not getting optimal therapy. With a full-face mask, your therapy pressure is maintained.

You're likely to suffer from dry mouth anytime you mouth-breathe. Some people use products (like Biotene) to help maintain moisture in the mouth. You can also try turning up the humidifier a bit.

Hope that helps.

[zaffy47]

Thanks Bleep
I am going to ask for a new sleep study and then purchase a full face mask. I have not been sleeping soundly. I noticed that some of the headgear do not have chin straps and I was wondering about those people...do they NOT open their mouth at night or do they use separate chin straps.

[BlackSpinner]

Chinstraps don't help all that much. Your teeth might be locked into place but your lips are still open.

[rise&shiner]

My suggestion is based on being a true mouth breahter. I found that the full face masks that have a chin rest built into the mask worked the best for me. I have the least amount of leakage and better AHI's because the longer I have used this type of full f ace mask the more my mouth actually lets my nose do some of the work and I have much less dry mouth, Althugh I rarely got dry mouth with any of my ffm once I had my humidifier set on at the right level.