How did YOU Resolve Your Mouth-Leaks? (poll)

Craig P, my son has purchased a chin strap similar to the one you've created - has a band which covers the mouth. He also finds it works a charm, and he's a very dedicated mouth breather. Used to love polident strips, until they stopped selling them over here.

I've been asked about this previously, but I cannot get him to supply a name or brand for it, so I'll check it out myself next time I'm over there.

grandmma wrote:Craig P, my son has purchased a chin strap similar to the one you've created - has a band which covers the mouth. He also finds it works a charm, and he's a very dedicated mouth breather. Used to love polident strips, until they stopped selling them over here.

I've been asked about this previously, but I cannot get him to supply a name or brand for it, so I'll check it out myself next time I'm over there.

I haven't seen anything like it here in the States and after using the junk some companies call chin straps I just had to make my own. Good thing my Mom taught me to sew

After about a week with the Zest Nasal CPAP Mask with Headgear I had almost no trouble with the month opening.

Since my nasal surgery (septoplasty/SMR of inf. turbinates), I've been using a headstrap to keep my mouth closed, I've been able to lower my CPAP pressure from 18 cm2 down to 10 cm2, and together this is sufficient to eliminate most mouth leaks. My AHI is around 2 even w/o tape. I did wake up the other night with a blow out, but that's once over five or six days so not too bad IMHO.

A little late, but put me down for the "other" that is not on your poll. When I was using a nasal mask, the tape worked very well for me. However, after a discussion with my doctor, I reluctantly saw the wisdom of not taping my mouth shut and decided to pursue other options. Additionally, the tape is just plain ol' uncomfortable over my mouth, and sneezing and coughing become more of a problem than they need to be.

I have tried some FFMs, but none of them is capable of attaching to my head, apparently, in such a way that could prevent a HUGE leak when my jaw relaxes. I could eat a sandwich through the bottom of the mask, no matter how tight. I guess I have no chin or something.

So now I am using a FFM along with taping my face but not sealing my mouth with the tape. I can still breath through my mouth if I needed to, but the tape prevents my jaw from losing contact with the mask.

Craig P, nice home-made chin strap.

Craig P wrote:

DreamStalker wrote:

Craig P wrote:I use the Swift II nasal pillows and have developed my own custom chin strap with a piece of elastic that covers my mouth. This works to keep my jaw from falling open and seals my lips without using tape, glue or any other foreign substance.

You mean sort'a like this?

viewtopic.php?p=435648#p435648

Actually mine is much less bulky and easier to put on. Now don't laugh, just because I use underwear elastic. I have tried regular elastic from a cloth store and found that it cannot withstand constant skin contact without breaking down and I cannot find a source of similar elastic. I actually just made this one last night. It is the fourth one I have made over the years. Very easy to remove in the event you have to get out of bed in a hurry or if you might have a panic attack.



No tongue tricks No tape.

Jeez CraigP, if I was a cop responding to a burglary I would figure you were a pervert wearing underwear elastic on your head, shoot you and then worry about where the burglar was. I got it all figured out the first night when I awoke to find my wife gently squeezing my lips shut so I wouldn't whistles or flap my lips all night. So that's her job now.

Come to think of it, I have a couple of friends that used to wear their underwear on their heads, but that's a story for another time.

Wish i could use the tape method but have a mustache.

I been using a Premium Chinstrap with my Swift II and denture strips. Last night I tried the denture adhesive paste (member of the mustache crew) and it cut my leaks to 0% for the 1st time!

sleeplessguy wrote:I been using a Premium Chinstrap with my Swift II and denture strips. Last night I tried the denture adhesive paste (member of the mustache crew) and it cut my leaks to 0% for the 1st time!

Honestly? I don't know if I could stand all of that gear... I must be claustrophobic. Much prefer my own solution. I get my wife to squeeze my lips closed if I'm whistling.

Seriously.... spent three weeks on life support last summer with one week using a full face mask reefed down to the point that my ears were losing circulation. I think I might consider going to a full face mask if my nosebag were ever to fail me but my leak rate is so low that it is not an issue for me. I learned to keep my mouth shut in the army and I guess it stuck.

And seriously... as silly as it may look (and who's going to see anyway?) the underwear elastic solution would probably be my first attempt at resolving a mouth leak issue; not so restrictive and probably a lot more comfy than a full face mask that's tight enough not to leak.

Had dinner over at a friend's the other day and the topic of sleep apnea came up. He sleeps 12 hours a day and is still tired. Whooooa! Sounds like you need a sleep study and away he goes and gets one. Lo and behold, this 58 year old very fit and active male has OSA! And so does his son! He was just fitted with an oral appliance at a cost of $2700C and is awaiting delivery. No guarantees that it will work but has two friends who are using the appliance successfully. Wonder what they cost stateside? I can hardly wait to see this thing - It may be the $2700 solution to mouth breathing.

Tongue trick worked for me. Not sure how I did it...just kind of did. Said to myself...."Self? You know you will never want to wear a chinstrap so figure it out"

No way could I ever tape or anything like that. It would freak me out too much. I had a hard enough time getting over feeling "tied down" with my nasal mask straps.

pdean44 wrote:Wish i could use the tape method but have a mustache.

I use tape with a moustache along with the headgear I posted earlier in this thread. It works just great for me. Haven't had a leak since I started using tape with it.

Guess I'm another "other". On my first attempt at cpap a few years ago I was a mouth breather by neccessity. As long as I could remember I could never breathe effectively through my nose. I always had severe allergies so put it down to that. When I looked into having a uppp done my ENT said, "did you know you have a severely deviated septum?". Well no, 35 years or so and no doctor had ever mentioned that to me. So when I had the uppp done the doc also did a septoplasty. For the first time in my life (well, since I was a tiny tot anyway) I could breathe through my nose.

So now that I'm on cpap again I got the nasal mask. I only had a mouth leak a couple of times at the titration. My first couple of nights I taped my mouth because that's what I did with the nasal mask the last time. After that I decided to try it without the tape and three weeks later (knock wood) very few mouth leaks. The few I've had I wake a little, close my mouth, and go back to sleep.

The septoplasty really seems to have done the job for me. It probably helped that I had a couple of years in there without the cpap to "retrain" myself to use my nose for primary breathing.

Oh, and the severe allergies? I finally, at the ripe old age of 38, saw an allergist. My parents would never take me because I "only" had hayfever as far as they were concerned and when I became an adult on my own insurance my doctor at the time told me "you're old enough to know what you're allergic to". The results were allergies to cats (severe), dust mites (not so severe), and ragweed (severe). We always had from one to three cats around the house growing up. Talk about torture. I dust and use hepa filters around the house and medicate during ragweed season.

torontoCPAPguy, that should keep it shut.
It looks homemade. Like a jockstrap ? (never used, of course)
Seriously, where did you get the wide elastic ?

I ended up with quattro fx which keeps leaks at zero or close to it. Occasionally I wake up with really dry mouth despite no leaks. Why would that happen with ffm?

I tried 3m microFOAM tape and I think it works great with my swift lt but I still got chipmunk cheeks. I had other challenges to figure out ie pressure and desats so decided to stick with ffm and zero leaks until the rest is stable.

I bought a whole box of 3m microfoam. If anyone wants to try a roll pm me and we can work out a good deal. I just hate having stuff sitting around that someone else could use.