New Liberty Mask

[tbrown2]

I am having a hard time with my new Liberty mask. I cannot breath through my nose with the pillows. I tried different sizes, adjusting them without the machine on, with the machine on and still don't feel like I am getting any air into my nose. Then I open my mouth and I wake up with severely dry mouth to the point it is painful. I thought it might be congestion so I pulled out the ComfortFit full face and had no issues breathing through my nose. I sat down with my DME when I first picked it up and had them make sure the size and fit were correct for the pillows and the piece around my mouth. SO I feel confident I have the right size. It is like they collapse when I put them in my nose closing off the air. No leaks just can't breathe. Is there a trick to these things. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
R,
TBrown

[nanwilson]

You said you put them "in" your nose ? They don't go in your nose, the tips just slightly go in and the rest sits out and the rim (edge of the cone part) sits against your nares.
I can't see why your mouth would be super dry with the mouth cushion when you are used to using a ffm...have to get further answers on that one..

[notyorz]

Just a few thoughts...

Are the nasal pillows sitting on the outside gently sealing around the nostrils or are they up inside?

Take a look at picture 5 in the fitting guide here: http://www.resmed.com/us/assets/documen ... er_eng.pdf

Perhaps you need to adjust the humidifier settings to avoid dry mouth.

Are you using a ramp feature on your machine? Sometimes the low pressures can feel like there isn't enough air.

[Pugsy]

Some people will have dry mouth even when using a full face mask at the highest humidifier setting. The humidifier just can't add enough moisture for some people to effectively add enough moisture to take care of the oral cavity.
Gotta keep the mouth shut by some means or perhaps use something like Biotene gel or mouthwash to add moisture at the start of the night. Some meds make dry mouth worse.

It doesn't take much mouth breathing to dry out a person's mouth. Using a full face mask eliminates the loss of therapy pressure from mouth breathing but doesn't always fix the dry mouth. The humidifiers are really designed to adequately work in the nasal cavity and not the oral cavity. If someone happens to have a tendency to have a drier mouth easily then the use of the humidifier may not be enough. If you can increase your humidifier setting that may help...and it may not.

Don't know what is going on with the nasal pillow part of the mask. My first suspect is that the straps are too tight and the pillows have collapsed and not allowing air movement. It is a common error people make.
Try placing the pillows gently touching the nose. Don't use the straps or anything..barely touch the nostrils and see if you can get air movement. If you can..that is your answer. The straps are too tight. Nasal pillows work best when they are loose enough to allow inflation and if they can't inflate no air moves.

[tbrown2]

Well, it is pretty obvious I didn't explain myself well enough. I do just place the pillows at the entrance to the nares and I get a good seal and it doesn't feel like there are any leaks from the nasal pillows. The problem is I just can't seem to get enough air through the pillows to be comfortable. I have turned off the ramp function on the machine. My Doc had me reset the pressures (5-13) on my Icon so that the automatic function manages what I need. It stays up at around 9 90% of the time.
I get the mask on and turn on the machine and start to go to sleep and my mouth opens as my brain is telling me I am not getting enough air through the pillows. I turned the humidifier up to full humidity and I still wake during the night with my mouth painfully dry. I like the mask I just can't seem to get past the issue with not enough air through the nose and the dry mouth. I was hoping there was a fitting trick that I could do to make it better.
Thanks,
TBrown

[Jay Aitchsee]

tbrown, I think the 5 setting is pretty low, especially since you say you stay around 9 most of the time. I'd try bringing the min pressure up to something like 7 or 8.

Jay

[Pugsy]

A starting pressure of 5 is fairly low and for some people it will seem like not enough air is moving. It is the air pressure and not the nasal pillow fit that is the culprit. While technically we won't suffocate with it, we sure feel like we might.
It is a common complaint for some people. Try minimum of 6 or 7 and see if it helps.

[LSAT]

tbrown......In your initial post, you said..." I pulled out the ComfortFit full face and had no issues breathing through my nose."

Why don't you stick to the ComfortFit full face mask and forget the pillows??