enghelp wrote:LOTS of times they will put people on a full face mask...
My experience has been different. Every time I've gone to a DME, they have attempted to give me the cheapest, crummiest nasal mask available at the time.
I'm in the same category as SleepingUgly - no amount of pursing my lips or keeping my mouth closed will stop air from leaking out my mouth between my teeth, under my tongue, past my cheeks, and out the corners of my mouth at a pressure of 10cm plus. There isn't a nasal mask made that works for me, much though I wish this were the case.
I use the zzz, quattro, umff and the hybrid. All of them as they are designed - even nasal masks - suffer from mask torque. Your head is on the pillow, you spin your face in one direction and the mask stays with the pillow and moves around on your face. Leakage ensues. You wake up and have to re-establish the purchase of the silicone on your face.
The below has probably been said every time students come here. We have yet to see anyone come up with the golden solution. You want to create a winner? Here is your recipe.
First: Design a system of straps, webbing or mesh that stop mask torque, because all of the current methods embraced by the big mask-making companies are next to useless. Turning over basically means waking up almost fully, just to insure your mask isn't going to leak, settling into a new position consciously and then attempting to continue sleeping.
a. Make a solution that does
not leave strap marks.
b. Make your strap solution light, easy to don and doff, stretchy where appropriate and unstretchy similarly.
c. Make the head-facing surfaces of whatever you design lined with cotton - not polyester or nylon.
d. Include some real chin stabilization in your solution. Make it a
valid solution or don't even try.
d. Make your solution machine-washable. I want to be able to wash it a hundred times and still have it as useful and comfortable as the first night.
Second: Design this full face mask:
a. One that doesn't need one of those obnoxious forehead braces. This isn't just about vanity. All morning long after you wake up you've got two itchy suction cups stamped on your forehead. You may as well tattoo "Loser" there.
b. One that doesn't cause a bloody nose bridge under high pressure or tight straps - not too narrow, not too wide.
c. One that wraps properly around the corners of the mouth, senses when your mouth goes slack and follows your face contours during sleep, or when you smile or laugh in your sleep.
d. While you're at it, find a better alternative to silicone that feels like cotton, or design your solution with washable cotton liners.
Third: Wear your solution for thirty days before expecting someone else to try it. If you can't wear it, chances are nobody else will want to either.
Fourth: Make any solution such that small children don't stare in horror at a grandparent when they see him wake up masked in the morning, or alternatively make masked children feel like they are sick hospital patients.
Fifth: Make it less expensive than any mask system currently on the market while simultaneous more durable.
Now for nasal masks...
