Dry mouth

I have been using a CPAP machine for over 10 years. I have had a new Respironics machine for a couple of years and often wake up with an extremely dry mouth in the middle of the night. I use a chin strap which I think is pretty effective but it doesn't seem to help. I have the machine set on 4 out of 5 for humidity. Anyone have any suggestions?

If you are not using a FF mask,....you should be!

Your chinstrap is effective?? but it doesn't help????

Mogul59 wrote:I have had a new Respironics machine for a couple of years and often wake up with an extremely dry mouth in the middle of the night. I use a chin strap which I think is pretty effective but it doesn't seem to help.

Please register and then add your equipment to your profile. Here's how.wiki/index.php/Registering_Equipment_in_User_Profile

Dry mouth usually means some mouth breathing. I assume you know that since you are using chin strap along with some sort of nasal interface mask and not a full face mask.. Are you saying that you think that the chin strap is effective and keeping your mouth shut but still wondering where the dry mouth is coming from? What type of mask are you using?
Well the dry mouth is coming from mouth breathing. Now I will say that sometimes a person can have a dry mouth from just a little mouth breathing. It doesn't take a lot of air moving through the mouth to dry it out. The humidifier is designed to add moisture to the nasal cavity and that is a much smaller area. The mouth is much larger and just harder to keep moisturized.

So you have some sort of air movement through your mouth to dry it out. How much? We don't know unless you have a machine that records data and will show if the mouth breathing is bad enough to show up as a large leak.

I use a nasal pillow type of mask. I do not use a chin strap nor do I tape now. Sometimes I wake up during the night with dry mouth and sometimes even wake up with my mouth open. I do have the software and I have looked at my reports and there is simply no leak showing. Nothing to indicate my mouth was open. So I must assume that the mouth breathing or opening was of very short duration or I would see it on the leak report.

For you to know for sure if the mouth breathing is enough to impact therapy and possibly create a need for full face mask we would need to look at your leak graph (hoping your machine has that data).

And finally, even full face mask users often complain of dry mouth. At least they aren't losing pressure out their mouths though. You need to figure out if the dry mouth is coming from mouth breathing that is bad enough to impact therapy. If it is..you need to fix it better than the chin strap is doing or change to full face mask.

Thanks to LSAT and PUGSY for responding. I haven't gotten this web site figured out yet so I don't know how to respond to you each individually but I certainly appreciate you both taking the time to respond. I assume that my dry mouth is the result of either too low humidity or mouth breathing and you are probably both right that it is mouth breathing. I tried tightening the chin mask until it was uncomfortable and that seemed to reduce the problem. I have tried a full face mask one time and really didn't like it. As I recall it didn't seem to help with the dry mouth. I am currently using a Respironics Comfort Gel Nasal Mask. I don't think my machine has any measurement capability that would help show how much I am mouth breathing. What I don't understand is that my prior machine had a separate heater and reservoir for water and the dry mouth was not a problem.

is that the actual machine you have listed in your profile? the Pro2 "tank"


if so you have data available on the smart card if you get the card reader and software - the data would include leak information

Jules, Sorry to be so long in responding. I haven't been having much trouble lately. I think just tightening the chin strap has made it more tolerable. That picture is not my machine. It is a Remstar Pro M series, Heater Humidifier Dom is the description. Model 1022334. The manual has an 06 date. I've lost track as to how long I've really had it. It did have a memory card which I think I mailed in for a few weeks. I was told that it was for the information of the supplier. As far as I know I can't get any info myself from the machine

The M Series Pro CPAP machine is listed in the equipment section (All M series models are together and the Pro is the last one in that group)
The humidifier is also listed. M Series Humidifier.

There is minimal information on the LCD screen. 7/30 AHI average and 90% leak number.

It uses a smart card to store data (this card https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -card.html) and there is software available but you need a special card reader this onehttps://www.cpap.com/productpage/Respir ... r-USB.html I have seen it for $40 elsewhere.