How to prevent dry as bones Mouth ?

[patknoll]

Greeting Forum Members :

I just this week stated using a nasal mask after 5 years of horror on the full face mask . Its far better as the thing is not all over my face each night leaking from all corners and points  - waking me up and also feeling line a matted  skunk  is covering my face.

Having some luck with nasal but had to put the pressure up to 10 to 17 .

But now mouth becomes very dry even though there is a full container of water .

What should I do - adjust the water temp or what ?  And how, if so .  Need help .

Thanks

[SarcasticDave94]

Hi patknoll and welcome to Apnea Board.

Dry mouth on waking could be contributed to humidifier settings or mouth opening during the night causing air to leak out. As for the humidifier settings, typically there is some sort of Auto/Manual selection then a humidifier level. There can be a setting for a heated hose if it's plugged in. If it were me, I'd try changing it to manual. A ResMed S9 possibly is close enough to my S10 series here, mine has a setting range of OFF and 1-8. Try settings as follows: manual and 4. And again if you have the heated hose, go again a mid-range setting of the high 70's to 80 degree F. If you don't like it, it's easily edited, and these settings are comfort oriented, so they should be easily accessed.

[patknoll]

Thanks a lot SD 94 

I have a heated hose - so I will try to adjust  humidifier and get that turned up and maybe return to the chin strap with nasal pillow  .

Much obliged .

pat

[SarcasticDave94]

Welcome and like I said, those settings are approximate middle areas. Try it and adjust up or down according to these initial results. If it's still dry, bump from 4 to 5, or too moist for you go to 3. Heated hose will permit you to go higher on humidity by preventing, or at least diminishing, condensation in the hose.

[Marillion]

I would be willing to bet the issue here is air escaping your lips, especially with you reporting an extremely dry mouth. I don't think humidifier settings and/or a heated hose will be enough to rectify your situation. A chin strap can help. But you can still get leaks past your lips. There is a way of training your tongue to stay compressed on the roof of your mouth, suctioned to your front teeth somewhat. This is something you can practice during the day to get your mind used to keeping your tongue in that position. The idea is that your brain will realize it is a good place to store your tongue and will do that during your sleep as well. If your tongue stays in that position no air should escape your mouth, as long as your tongue doesn't drop down.

I myself had limited benefit from that exercise, though it did help somewhat. What finally solved the issue of air escaping past my lips and getting tremendous dry mouth was using medical grade PAPER tape to tape my lips shut. I use a longish piece that I fold over on one end to have an easy pull tab and I run the tape a couple of times on my forehead before applying to my lips to reduce the stickiness to make it a bit easier to remove in the morning. Also, in the morning when it is time to remove it you will find it can be pretty firmly stuck on (easy enough to pull off but you can hurt your lips in doing so) so I use my tongue to move around under the tape and push some saliva up there to reduce the adhesion. Sounds gross, but it does make the tape a LOT easier to remove and thus will not hurt your lips at all when you take the tape off. Particularly the middle of your lips are just above your top lips. A very sensitive area.

Some worry that they won't be able to open their mouth if the machine stops pumping air to you, but your jaw muscles are exceedingly strong and are capable of powering past most tapes but particularly PAPER based medical tapes. I definitely would not recommend using duct tape or anything not paper based and medical grade...

Since using tape and a chin strap I have had absolutely zero issues with any dry mouth. Taping is a controversial subject but some people swear by it. I am one of those people. Everyone needs to decide what works and does not work for themselves.

[Melman]

I also suspect your dry mouth is due to air escaping through your lips. It would probably show up as a leak on a SleepyHead chart. You should consider downloading and using SleepyHead. Not only will it show leaks but will provide much detailed information to help you manage your therapy. See the links below.

I had the same problem. The tongue trick doesn't work for me and I'm one of those who is uncomfortable with taping so I use the Airfit F20 full face mask which I find very comfortable. I'm hardly aware it's there. It may be that you haven't tried the right FF mask.

Many have found Biotene mouthwash to be helpful for dry mouth.

[patknoll]

Thank you Marillion :

I will try all that you have suggested .

pk

[patknoll]

Thank you Melman :

I will keep this in mind as well and the mouth way for  sure, I'll add to the current bedside collection .

Much Obliged .

Pat

[patknoll]

Thx a lot Melman - will carefully consider  all suggestions . Your forum very helpful  .

pat

[Hojo]

All of the above and you may want to try a mouth rinse Biotien, it seems to help dry mouth.