If you look you can see the gap in my lips, and that drove me nuts! So I tried mouth taping which worked to a degree, but was kind of uncomfortable and was REALLY uncomfortable pulling off of the facial hair! I tried a chinstrap but that didn't help either unless I taped, because the air would still force it's way through my lips. I tried Poligrip strips which didn't work at all, tasted terrible, and was worse trying to get all the sticky off. I looked at other solutions including different chinstraps and saw this one:
This looked familiar to me so I did some checking and sure enough, I found what it reminded me of. Wal-mart carries a Mueller elastic bandage with Velcro which is exactly like that chinstrap except it's tan and doesn't have the backstrap. It also costs less than 5 bucks. I picked it up to give it a try. In the meantime, I also tried an Amara FFM just to see what it would do. It's a good mask, but just not for me. So, after the Amara, the Mirage Quattro FFM, crappy chinstrap, tape, and strips, this is what I came up with:
I love it! I absolutely love it! It is surprisingly comfortable. It doesn't bother my head, nose, ears, or anything! I don't wrap it tightly at all. There is just enough tension between it and my lips that even if my tongue AND jaw relaxes, the lips still won't part. However, if I feel the need to take a deep breath with my mouth I can. Trust me, I tested and tested it. I believe this is a 100% safe way of keeping chipmunk cheeks at bay. With this plus that mask, even though I've only used CPAP for going on three weeks now, I can sleep a full night without taking off the mask, and don't even notice that I'm wearing anything. Oh, and the mask makes a great seal over the bandage as well. No leaks!! This works great for me and hopefully it will work for many others as well!
One last thing. My son thinks I look like a ninja LOL
