Having trouble with mask

I am having trouble tring to keep a good seal. I am new to CPAP. If I tighten the mask to stop the leak then I wake in the middle of the night with my nose hurting, so then I try to loosen it up and when I roll over it will start to leak.

I've had very good luck sealing the mask with Mack's silicone earplugs. I don't need to keep it nearly as tight with a good layer of silicone between my face and the mask.

I also tried my homemade version of remzzzs last night, and it was pretty darn comfortable as well as fairly effective against leaks. You can read about that here and here.

Is there more people using a full face mask instead of the pillow style mask?

B Tired wrote:Is there more people using a full face mask instead of the pillow style mask?

I'm real new to this, but I'm using this mask and have zero problems with leakage. The first night I had the mask on pretty tight and my nares were a bit tender the next morning (after 12 1/2 hours of wear the first night). My leak rate was LESS than the mask is rated, so someone suggested I loosen it a bit. So I loosened it a bit and still had zero excess leakage (above what the mask is venting...), and the tenderness in my nares was gone.

So anyway, I absolutely love this mask but my only other experience was with a nasal mask that while I slept okay, the leakage had me waking with my eyes feeling slightly wind burned. Of course, it was during the study so I didn't try to play with it any.

If you do the fitting guide on CPAP.com, it will ask if your nares are "slotted" or "round". If you answer "slotted", it will not advise you on nasal pillows. So perhaps that is the difference. I consider my nares "in between", but they easily round out with no stress at all so I get a good fit with good comfort. I'm assuming you played with the pillows and got the right size.

My personal approach to masks was the less the better. Short of mouth breathing problems, I'm not inclined to go full face and if the pillows didn't work I was going to try a nasal. I bought a full face (the hybrid -- haven't tried it all night yet but the fit felt pretty nice), but that was only for in case I get stopped up and will need to mouth breathe during therapy.

If you didn't do the face fitting on cpap.com, you might put your measurements in there and see what it advises...

B Tired wrote:I am having trouble tring to keep a good seal. I am new to CPAP. If I tighten the mask to stop the leak then I wake in the middle of the night with my nose hurting, so then I try to loosen it up and when I roll over it will start to leak.

I also found that if I roll over and my mask makes contact with the pillow, it will jar it to where it leaks. When I want to sleep on my side, I move to the edge of the pillow so that the mask has minimal/no contact with the pillow. This is a logical and acceptable trade off for me -- when the seal is concentrated to the nares of my nose that simply is not going to be enough to withstand any significant contact with my pillow.

So my thought is I'd rather jockey around to where I don't let the mask make any significant contact in order to enjoy the minimal contact and comfort of nasal pillows. Thus far I haven't found myself tossing too much in my sleep so this has been okay for me. I will say that my nasal mask at the sleep lab was stable enough for me to easily sleep on my side (on a memory foam pillow).

Some people use a little Ayr Gel lotion around the inside of the nostrils to help with the seal and to prevent irritation from the pillows.

Thanks Sharkbait. Has any one had any luck or good comfort with the Ultra Mirage II Nasal Mask? I tried something like this while I was at the sleep lab, but it started to irritate me around my nose and my upper lip. My nose holes are slotted so maybe thats why my mask leaks fairly easy.