9 months on CPAP - recent mouth breathing

[rsjoyce]

Someone needs to invent a way to embed an anti-asphyxia valve into a mouthpiece.

It would be easy to make an anti-asphyxia valve that fits between the mask and the hose on a nasal mask. There are quite a few masks with separate anti-aspyxia valves, but none have the right size fittings on the end.

This gave me an idea. I removed the anti-asphyxia valve from an old full face mask I had and attached it carefully using medical tape (since the fittings don't match on one side) between the small nose pillows tube and the main tube. If it pulls loose I'll have plenty of air, though it is well-taped and probably won't. I tested it by unplugging my machine and breathing for 10 minutes and it seemed fine.

I don't know why manufacturers don't put anti-asphyxia valves on nose pillows. I guess because they assume you will breathe through your mouth if you need to, even with a chin strap. For myself the chin strap does not work - my lips flop open and mouth dries out like a bone. I guess they also don't want to encourage mouth taping, since there remains the danger of aspiration pneumonia.

For myself, it was hard to sleep with the full face mask since I am a side sleeper, and it leaked a lot even with 5 RemZzzs, which meant I was waking up all night long, 40 more times, to readjust my sleeping position to accommodate the mask. The mask was also putting permanent "frown" creases on my face and flattening my hair so that it grew to the side. I used the full face mask for years, and hated it the whole time. Life has its trade-offs, and I would rather risk aspiration pneumonia than go through such things the rest of my life.

I have been taping my mouth shut for a couple of months now and it works really well. I am sleeping much better. Also, I installed a loud failed circuit alarm on my machine as double insurance against power failure.

[Sleepster]

For myself, it was hard to sleep with the full face mask since I am a side sleeper,

Me, too. I had this same trouble with a nasal mask, so I switched to nasal pillows and was delighted. Fast forward three years and all has changed. I find I can now tolerate the full face mask.

So I would suggest you try it. Stopping the mouth-leaking has made an improvement in the way I feel. Leak graphs now look much much better.

[minutia101]

Yep, count me in the chinstrap crowd as well.

After over a year of no problems (also with the Swift FX) I suddenly found myself with mouth leaks nightly. I asked my doc (okay, his nurse) for a chinstrap script and she said that if I was mouth breathing I needed a full face mask, I held firm, she relented, and I am happy with the results.

If you have trouble with the chin strap you could also try using a head band using it vertically rather than horizontally.