WAS I MOUTHBREATHING?

vigna · Post by **vigna** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:37 am

I have just over 1000 CPAP therapy hours under my belt and feeling much much better with lot more energy and have successfully lost over 15 KG in 5 months and now i weigh 78 KG with a BMI of 26. since i was waking up with a dry mouth in the first few months though my leak rate with swift mask was between 37 to 40 L/MIN at a CPAP pressure of 10 to 15. over the last weeks i have started taping my mouth after reading posts by rooster and RG. though my mouth is not as dry like before my leak rate remains the same. before taping my wife used to observe that i dont mouth breath but at times my mouth open lightly to let out some air (? air leak due to high pressure) is it still worthwhile to tape and i would be extremely grateful for comments by experienced CPAPERS from this forum. iam working on losing some more weight to reduce my pressures further as with present weight loss has enabled me to come down from my original pressure setting of 15 to 20 to the present setting of 10 to 15. thanks

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:12 am

Interesting, I used to tape my mouth shut when on 15 cms and with a nasal mask

Recently I have been able to lower pressure to 13 cms & use nasal pillows masks & am not aware of any mouth leaks.

I suspect that for me, 14+ cms probably leads to mouth air leaks.

I am getting good reults at 13cms

Cheers

DSM

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:24 am

Congratulations on the weight loss, vigna.

Since you have the software for you machine, you could probably try a little experimenting, with special attention to looking at the leak rate line on the graph each morning.

You could try a few nights without tape to compare the leak graph line (as well as what the pressure does) with your previous nights wearing tape.

The fact that your leak rate seemed to stay the same regardless of whether you taped your mouth or not could mean you weren't having significant mouth leaks, even though you found that the inside of your mouth was drying out without taping, and ok with tape.

If tape is holding securely and a mask is not leaking, the leak line should be fairly steady. If I find that the tape I put over my mouth has worked loose a bit by morning, I can see that reflected in the data's leak line getting very jagged during the latter part of the night.

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:21 pm

The Swift has a intentional built-in leak rate of 33L/m @10cm pressure to 43L/m @15cm pressure.

So if your leak exceeds those values above that is unintentional leak such as from leakage around pillows or even mouth breathing.

Mouth breathing would show up exactly as mask leak, should follow periods of REM sleep (if observing a machine report that tracked such an event).