I also have a second one that is brand new and still in its packaging but I am putting off using it until i feel this first one is completely done and not wearable anymore.
I have dry skin, not oily at all.
So I shower in the morning and admittedly I do not wash my face before bed as I try to avoid taking soap to my skin unless i need it.
I now wonder if that was a mistake, at least as far as the mask latex goes.
This is why.....
2 weeks ago I tried a chin strap for the first time. It didn't work. I put it on under my face mask so the extra wraps would keep the chin strap in place.
The next night although I think it must just be a coincidence since i can't see how the chin strap would have ruined my face mask, I have begun to leak air for the first time.
From may 12th to that night 2 weeks ago, I had a perfect fitting mask that never leaked and I went to sleep for a full 8 hours perfectly each night.
2 weeks ago I started to wake up thinking i had moisture on my face but half asleep it took me another night or two to realize it wasn't moisture but likely bubbles of air sort of running across my cheeks.
Then I began to wake up once a night hearing what sounded like a farting sound and it was the mask leaking.....LOL.......hard to not laugh when you hear it.
Then it just started whooshing out for a second here or there if i even turned a fraction of an inch or so....or rushing into the corner of my eye 1x or 2x waking me up when it did.
( i generally seem to sleep in one position all night on my back and don't move)
My AHI is still under 5 every night but the leaking which was once a straight line at the bottom is now up and down all over the place although only 1, 2 times a night over the line.
In the process of tightening the mask, even though i know its better to be loose, finding that wouldn't work and then loosening and finding that didn't work either and going back and forth, I ended up with a horrible cut along the bridge of my nose that was red and very sore and became aggravated on the second night. Purchased a gel thingy for the nose by Resmed although it doesn't really stick well to the cheek bones as the picture shows but it allowed the cut to heal.
While wearing it for 3 nights, I had also been given a few testers of those mask liners I see people talking of here but they only had large and i have a small to medium face but I still tried.
Admittedly with those 2 things on the mask no longer leaked BUT I suddenly became for the first time a bit claustrophobic although I don't know why I did.
But i also found that my nose was stuffing up.
I had been using a nasal rinse every night and it was clear all night long ever night but with these two extra things on my face, I don't know if the pressure was too much on my nose or not but it felt as if i could not either fully breathe properly and/or one time it became very stuffed up like this so I had to take the mask off to breathe, or feel as if i were.....
I guess it was partly my mistake as I did try these liners without cutting them down and found that the leaking kept blowing corners of the liner too close to my eye and bothered me.
Tonight i will try cutting off the extra material and see how that goes.
BUT.....since i seem to have to be going though all of this just to keep the ask from leaking before opening up my new one I would like to know what the average amount of time people find that their masks work perfectly without leaking, etc before all these other things start to happen?
I am guessing that the latex must be breaking down? Its not as firm on my face as it originally was i am guessing..........and all that i have described is normal from the breaking down process?
Granted as i said earlier, I don't wash my face nightly but in the morning but might have to start IF that is causing the problem but my face is not nor do I have any oil problems with my skin..........no pimples, or anything of the kind nor ever have in my life so if anything moisturizer would be put on my skin but I haven't because I felt it would ruin the latex.............
Is it possible that the latex on these masks are really only just good for about 4 months ONLY????
TIA