dry mouth

humidifier is set at four but dry mouth persists. any suggestions on how to alleviate this condition?

Are you leaking from your mouth overnight? If that's ocurring with enough volume you'll never get enough humidity to wake up without dry mouth.

What mask are you using, macoil?

If it's a nasal mask (covers the nose only) or nasal pillows mask, are you sure you're not leaking treatment air out your mouth? Mouth air leaks or mouth breathing can both make the mouth very dry, no matter how much humidification you use.

If it's a full face mask (covers nose and mouth) to ensure you get treatment pressure either way, again even with heated humidification the mouth tends to get dry if you're mouthbreathing exclusively. The higher the pressure blowing at you, the more that can happen, even inside a full face mask with humidifier as warm as it will go.

Also, is there any chance you're not turning the humidifier on each time you use the machine? There've been several times I've turned on my machine but forgotten to turn the humidifier on.

If it's an integrated humidifier, it's also easy to forget to turn it back on if I get up during the night, turn the machine off for a few minutes and then come back to bed. Gotta turn them both back on.

I suppose you've already checked the simplest thing of all...is the heater really working? Does it feel warm if you put your hand down against the bottom sides of the water chamber? Does the water feel warm if you pour a little out on your hand after it's been on all night?

If the problem is "none of the above", I'd think about adding the Aussie heated hose to your set-up. That's a warm air hose to replace your "regular" air hose. A warm hose enables the heated humidified air making that long trip through a 6 foot hose to retain as much of its humidity as possible -- helps the humidification reach you.

People think of the Aussie heated hose as being a great way just to control rainout (condensation.) But the heated hose also can be that last key needed to get plenty of humidification all the way to you. With your "regular" cold plastic air hose, the air might be cooling enough and losing a good bit of its humidity on the way, even if it's not actually resulting in rain out on you.

sleepzone.com.au is where you can get the Aussie heated hose that so many of us use happily.

Turning up the humidifier and using OralBalance a gel I buy at Walgreen's (toothpaste section), has helped me a lot with this.

Mouth still gets dry, but not half as bad as it used to be.