Inside Mouth feels glued shut

Sometimes I wake during the night and inside my mouth it feels dry as a desert. I have to sip water to "unglue" my inners from sticking.

I think I am sleeping with my mouth shut. Someone suggested using chap stick to keep the lips shut tighter.

What causes this?

That's absolutely classical symptoms of leaking air out your mouth. It's one of the biggest problems with CPAP. A chin strap is one possible solution. Sometimes people have to switch to a full face mask.

Ahhh, leaking air "out", I thought I was sucking air in. Makes sense. Great another piece of head gear. Chin Strap or duct tape? Decisions decisions.

Thank you for your reply.

Oh, so another question then. Would using a higher setting on the humidity portion of the machine help? I currently just use the lowest setting .5

Hose Head by Night wrote:Oh, so another question then. Would using a higher setting on the humidity portion of the machine help? I currently just use the lowest setting .5

I may help some, but, if you are leaking air through your mouth, you are not getting the therapy you need.

I would have to agree it sounds as though you are leaking air. I don't leak air with my treatment, but I do have cronic dry mouth due to medications. I find using the humidifier with my machine and also using bioten tooth paste has been very helpful. There are other toothpastes on the market that are for dry mouth but bioten is the only one I have tried. I don't like there mouth washes or another other product, just the toothpaste so far.
Also I know some people just keep water by there bed, so they don't have to get up, and can hopefully go back to sleep right away.

Hose Head by Night wrote: Would using a higher setting on the humidity portion of the machine help? I currently just use the lowest setting .5

Also your profile shows that you have the software?? I would suggest that you take a look at those graphs to see just how much you are leaking. Large amount of mouth breathing will show as leak on the graphs. If the leak line is pretty much straight most of the time with only occasional blips of leaking the mouth breathing may not be as severe as a person thinks. If this is the case a little extra humidity might help a little.

Now if you are spending a lot of time near or over that red line then you sure could be losing enough air to impact the therapy pressure needed. You would need to aggressively try to prevent the mouth opening so as to not lose precious air pressure.

If you don't understand the graphs then just one one of them here and someone will help you.

LSAT wrote:

Hose Head by Night wrote:Oh, so another question then. Would using a higher setting on the humidity portion of the machine help? I currently just use the lowest setting .5

I may help some, but, if you are leaking air through your mouth, you are not getting the therapy you need.

I think you can leak air slowly enough through your mouth to dry out without affecting therapy or showing up on the graph. I occasionally find myself "bubbling" a little bit of air every few seconds.

Some people claim that low humidity will cause you to open your mouth more often.

Yep...great description of what is happening to me the last few days...and I have the leak data to support it.

Not usually a leaker....when I have the desert mouth that is stuck to itself inside, I always have way elevated leak data.

J

Pugsy wrote:

Hose Head by Night wrote: Would using a higher setting on the humidity portion of the machine help? I currently just use the lowest setting .5

Also your profile shows that you have the software?? I would suggest that you take a look at those graphs to see just how much you are leaking. Large amount of mouth breathing will show as leak on the graphs. If the leak line is pretty much straight most of the time with only occasional blips of leaking the mouth breathing may not be as severe as a person thinks. If this is the case a little extra humidity might help a little.

Now if you are spending a lot of time near or over that red line then you sure could be losing enough air to impact the therapy pressure needed. You would need to aggressively try to prevent the mouth opening so as to not lose precious air pressure.

If you don't understand the graphs then just one one of them here and someone will help you.

I have the software but only seem to get graphs for duration. I am not sure the s9 Escape captures leaks. Does anyone know?

Hose Head by Night wrote:I have the software but only seem to get graphs for duration. I am not sure the s9 Escape captures leaks. Does anyone know?

Ah crap.. I saw software and didn't look at the model.
You get only hours of use with the Escape. You have no way to know if you are leaking a lot or not. No way to know if mouth breathing is possible affecting your therapy.

Never mind what I said. You can't get any information that might help you. No AHI to see if therapy is effective. No leak. Only hours of use to satisfy insurance requirements.
Perhaps you can ask DME to trial an Elite so you can see what is going on for sure.

LINKS to: Mouth leaks - Air Leaks - Tape - DIY Guard
viewtopic.php?t=8011

Thanks for all the links.

I was kidding about the duct tape comment above.

I see taping is an option. Don't really like the chin strap idea.

I am going to try the blue painters tape tonight.

What tapes are most people using?

Taping your mouth risks suffocation if the machine quits blowing and you don't wake up. You will be rebreathing your own exhaled air. Oxygen will decrease and CO2 will increase. This can cause you to sink deeper into unconsciousness and stop breathing.

Most people will wake up and be able to take the mask or tape off, but it's not a sure thing.

The other risk is aspiration pneumonia if you vomit before you can get the tape off. Aspiration pneumonia is very bad. Google it.

Many people tape anyway despite the risks. The risk may be small, but you'll probably be doing this for the rest of your life so risks add up.

When I taped I just used the blue painters tape I had left over from a painting job.
Secure enough to keep mouth closed but if you had to open your mouth for some reason, a big yawn will dislodge it.
Experiment while awake and you will see what I mean. It doesn't stick like rock hard cement at all.
I taped for about 2 months then I quit and I must have learned to keep my mouth shut. Rarely ever have much mouth breathing at all.