I think some sleep study techs probably do mention mouth breathing. It is too bad yours didn't because it would have at least given you a heads up on some potential problems. I knew I breathed through my mouth because I would have some raging sore throats and mouth dryness. I still opted to try to make the nasal pillow mask system work because I just couldn't breath with anything across my nose. It was my choice and I don't regret it. I remember when I first started and read about taping the mouth shut. I thought "no way", "how awful"..... but I did it and I found out it wasn't the death sentence my DME had tried to instill in me. The seal is easily broken with just a minimum of effort. I found this out when we had an unexpected power failure one night. Woke up and thought "Whoa, no air blowing" and realized that I had broken the seal and was breathing just fine.DadscreepyCPAPmask wrote: Its funny, during my sleep tests you would have thought I would have been told I was mouth breathing at some point during it. If I am mouth breathing now I would think I was then too. It just makes me wonder how many other people on CPAP that do not visit these forums and just take the machine home with whatever mask they are initally given and "wing it". Most are probably not getting the most out of their therapy.
Lots of people never make it to forums like this and lots of people go on to either less than adequate treatment or worse yet, put the machine in the closet because they don't see any improvement "so it must not be helping". It is indeed sad because sometimes all it takes is just a little trick or two to at least make this treatment not as much of a pain in the butt.
Sometimes it take a lot of tricks..... but that is the way of life. Sometimes easy, sometimes not so easy.
One other idea that might help you. Since I haven't read all your thread someone may have already mentioned this.
For myself and a lot of people we tend to open our mouths more often when we lay on our backs. This is why many people try to sleep on their sides as much as they can. So that is just another thing a person can try if they are trying to keep the mouth shut as much as possible.
