Chipmunk cheeks with FF mask?

[mandachris]

I'm on my 2nd week of CPAP. Started with Nasal Pillow and chin strap, but I'm apparently an obstinate mouth breather and the strap didn't keep me from breathing through my mouth. It moved around, fell off, or it was too tight and uncomfortable. Got a FF mask, and it's much more comfortable. However, now the air is inflating my cheeks like balloons when I fall asleep and my mouth falls open, and this causes serious dry mouth that wakes me up.

I've read about this happening with nasal pillows, but everything I've read on here suggests a FF mask will fix this problem.

So, what gives? What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Pugsy]

The tongue is not keeping the "door" from the airway to the mouth closed so air enters the mouth but your lips are closed so the only thing left is for the cheeks to inflate. Same thing as with a nasal mask only when you open your mouth inside the full face mask the therapy pressure is contained within the mask so there's no loss of therapy pressure.

Using a full face mask doesn't guarantee that a person won't get dry mouth. When air is moving in or out of the mouth it will dry out the mouth if the mouth is easy to dry out. Some people just get dry mouth easier than others.
We get lots of complaints of dry mouth from full face mask users. They get the same usual ideas...increase humidity settings but that isn't always that helpful because the oral cavity often takes more moisture to keep it hydrated than the humidifier can deliver. Use Biotene or similar product to help with dry mouth....keep the body in general well hydrated....Keep trying to train the tongue to stay in the roof of the mouth to help keep the door close which is of course easy to do while awake but the tongue gets lazy once we fall asleep.

[avi123]

You probably tried a full face mask that does not use its frame to prevent chipmunk cheeks. If the mask frame is against the cheeks then the cheeks would stay un inflated. This Fisher Paykel #432 for example confines the cheek:



As to dry mouth, in my case it comes from using medications and NOT from air going thru the mouth. I use faucet water to rinse my mouth several times a night.

[Nozzelnut]

If you're a mouth breather; you're going to have a dry mouth. You can try to adjust your humidifier up, but you might run into some rainout issues.
To help with the dry mouth I use a biotene mouth rinse before bed and stay away from mouthwashes that have alcohol. They also make some patches that help; I haven't tried them though.

The full cheeks will slowly go away. It took me about a month before I didn't notice it.

[mandachris]

Thanks all! I do think I need a new mask. The biotene is a great suggestion. I'll give it a try.

The company I got my machine from only had one FF without the head piece (had serious trouble with that during the sleep study). I'm just gonna have to bit the bullet and buy another one. Sigh.

Thanks!

[zbmidad]

I had dry mouth/chipmunk cheek issue too. I tape my mouth shut, occasionally get chipmunk cheeks. Just not as often.