Just realized I'm a mouth breather

Turns out I'm a mouth breather, but only on exhale. When I use a nasal mask and a chin strap, I exhale through my teeth and lips no matter how tight I make the strap. When I use a full face mask, same thing, air escapes on exhale breaking the mask seal on my face, which of course wakes me up. Is there any solution to this? My AHI hovers around 3. The worst part is when I get up in the morning, the roof of my mouth is so dry it hurts, and my lips have a small amount of dried saliva.

Are you sure the exhaled 'air' is not CO2 exiting the vents?

Have you tried taping your lips?

What about using the humidifier?

comtech5 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:45 pm

Turns out I'm a mouth breather, but only on exhale. When I use a nasal mask and a chin strap, I exhale through my teeth and lips no matter how tight I make the strap.

Because chin straps do nothing to prevent mouth breathing... Teeth aren't air tight, try it.

Now, a double sided boil and bite mouthpiece, the kind without the breathing hole in the middle, that often helps, as does taping your lips.

A few people swear by the foam neck collar--not so much in summer, though.
For a while I cut my own "chin up strips"--I'm too cheap to buy them.
Eventually, I let my mouth do what it wants--and it eventually stopped misbehaving.

Thank you. I'll try some hypoallergenic tape on my lips first and go from there.

You might try Somnifix strips to start with, just to see how you do with the whole taping thing. Pricey, but easy on the skin with a firm hold. After that, maybe Fixomull stretch tape. Less convenient, but also a lot less expensive.