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+--- Thread: Dry mouth (/Thread-Dry-mouth--7923)
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Dry mouth - Timotheus - 12-12-2014
My question is about dry mouth. Some nights I wake up with my mouth so dry that I have to peel my lips off my teeth (seriously) and my tongue is glued in place. I use nasal pillows and have the humidity set to 5 which is max for my Philips respironics. This does not happen every night but often enough. Also sometimes I notice a bit of air pushing my upper lip open and escaping. Then it stops.
Any suggestions/comments on my dry mouth?
RE: Dry mouth - zonk - 12-12-2014
Have tried turn down humidity level, sometimes too much humidity can cause stuffy nose ...
when that occur, will cause more mouth breathing and dry mouth ... its a cycle
Practice placing your tongue at the roof of your mouth, the tongue act as door stopper, allow the air detour down the airways instead escaping thru the mouth. Air escaping thru the mouth can compromise your therapy
Try different sleeping position, pillows, chinstrap, full face mask, biotenne mouth wash, nasal rinsing ...
Eventually you will stumble upon something that works for you
Some meds and diabetes can also be the cause of dry mouth, stay hydrated
RE: Dry mouth - Peter_C - 12-12-2014
The cause is "mouth-breathing". Some can self-teach themselves to stop, some can't. After dealing with it for years, I finally gave up (kicking and screaming) and switched to a full face mask (FFM). Good luck to you.
RE: Dry mouth - Galactus - 12-12-2014
One of the very first things you should do now is go to the top of the page and click on the software link to get sleepyhead software. This software will allow you to review the data recorded by your cpap machine to better understand your therapy and see if it is indeed working, and how well.
What you describe is as others have pointed out likely due to air from the cpap that is supposed to go to your lungs instead being routed in through your nose and out through your mouth thus defeating or hindering your therapy. If you have the software loaded and can review the data you will be able to see that happening and address it, as well as know how effective you are at dealing with it.
For me initially I dealt with the mouth breathing by training myself to keep my mouth shut. I did this by putting the nasal mask on while awake, and then opening my mouth till I could feel the air coming out my mouth. At that point I moved my tongue around and found the point where the air stopped and my tongue made the correct seal. It is not so much about keeping your mouth closed as it is about making that seal. I can open my mouth and even speak just so long as that seal is present the air is going where it needs to go. I found that once I made that seal when I went to bed like that it just naturally stayed that way for me.
The software is the best confirmation we have that our therapy is working and will point out problems we may not even know existed till we see them so it's really your best tool to making it work for you.
RE: Dry mouth - woozie38 - 01-09-2015
(12-12-2014, 03:27 AM)Timotheus Wrote: My question is about dry mouth. Some nights I wake up with my mouth so dry that I have to peel my lips off my teeth (seriously) and my tongue is glued in place. I use nasal pillows and have the humidity set to 5 which is max for my Philips respironics. This does not happen every night but often enough. Also sometimes I notice a bit of air pushing my upper lip open and escaping. Then it stops.
Any suggestions/comments on my dry mouth?
Dry mouth, it would appear, is one of the downsides of using nasal masks or nasal pillows. As some members have already explained, it may be possible to "train" yourself to keep your mouth closed and the position your tongue so as to prevent air escaping via your mouth.
This advice however didn't help me. I slept for 6 years using nasal pillows, even going to the "extreme" of taping my mouth. In the end however I had to resort to a full fave mask (FFM) which with the addition of my "Woozle" has fixed the problem.
RE: Dry mouth - saltydawg2 - 01-10-2015
How many folks clicked on "Woozle". Know I did!
RE: Dry mouth - PaytonA - 01-10-2015
I just finished reading another post by woozie38 that reminded me about the Woozle so I did not need to. Actually looks like a good idea. I was going to try it but got busy.......well you know how that goes.
RE: Dry mouth - Sleepster - 01-10-2015
(01-09-2015, 11:31 PM)woozie38 Wrote: Dry mouth, it would appear, is one of the downsides of using nasal masks or nasal pillows. As some members have already explained, it may be possible to "train" yourself to keep your mouth closed and the position your tongue so as to prevent air escaping via your mouth.
This advice however didn't help me. I slept for 6 years using nasal pillows, even going to the "extreme" of taping my mouth. In the end however I had to resort to a full fave mask (FFM) which [...] has fixed the problem.
It only took me three years to do exactly the same thing! I knew I was mouth-leaking because I could see it the leak graph, even though the machine was reporting that the leak rate was within acceptable limits. That is, I always got the smiley ResMed face, and the PRS1 reported mostly a 0% time in large leak although on occasion it would go to 1% or 2% and I'd tighten my chin strap.
RE: Dry mouth - Timotheus - 01-10-2015
(12-12-2014, 09:48 AM)Peter_C Wrote: The cause is "mouth-breathing". Some can self-teach themselves to stop, some can't. After dealing with it for years, I finally gave up (kicking and screaming) and switched to a full face mask (FFM). Good luck to you.
I think I would be "kicking and screaming", too. But I will try everything to solve this before I go on to a FFM.
RE: Dry mouth - Sleepster - 01-10-2015
I thought a FFM would be horrid because I started with a nasal mask and had to switch to nasal pillows because I had trouble getting a good seal. But to my surprise I was able to adapt to it quickly.