Drooling issue and open mouth

[Usman]

Hello,

This is my 2nd topic and would like to thank friends here who helped me a lot in my first topic.

Current I am having drooling issue. I drool a lot while sleeping and I sleep with open mouth. This cause me to wake up and clean my mask multiple times in night. I want to ask how to stop drooling. I have drooling history before I started using CPAP ( which is a month ago) but this is happening to me majorly from last 3 nights. While using Cpap from 25 days before it I did not have much issue with drooling it was on lower side. it started majorly from 3 days. Can Anyone Help?

[zoocrewphoto]

I don't have much useful advice, other than keeping kleenex or a towel handy. I have been a minor drooler for decades. Seems to come and go. I can go weeks without problems, then have a few nights in a row where I keep waking myself up. Sometimes due to allergies. Not sure what else. It does bother me on those nights as my mask will start to slide a bit, and I have to keep using a kleenex to dry it. The only thing I can figure out is that the drool is worse if my mouth is open more. And usually, my mouth is just barely open enough to breathe.

[LSAT]

Need to keep your mouth closed...Use tape or a chin strap or a cervical collar.

[zoocrewphoto]

Need to keep your mouth closed...Use tape or a chin strap or a cervical collar.

For some of us, this is not an option. We use a full face mask because it was designed for us.

I actually waited several years to get diagnosed with sleep apnea, because I was told that you had to breathe through your nose to use a cpap. And that is NOT going to happen for me. Even when my nose is clear, I do not use my nose when lying down. I tried it once, and I hated the sensation. I cuoldn't even use the hybrid because I couldn't block off the nasal part. I can use the oral mask without nasal plugs (and no leaks). But I have to modify the mouth piece so that I can keep my mouth open at a smaller amount than what it does.

At the dentist, they have to keep telling me to use my nose, and sometimes, they have to block my mouth to get me to switch. I am also a mouth breather most of the day. I have been for as long as I can remember.

I can't speak for the OP, but I would rather deal with drool than try to breathe through my nose with a cpap mask.

[tyrone747]

I wear a Scunci over my mouth and no longer wake up with pools of drool in my mask. I don't know if it's simply absorbing it or if it makes me keep my mouth closed. I suspect the latter though. A bonus is it makes the mask more comfortable having something between it and your skin. Leakage doesn't seem to be an issue.

[herefishy]

My husband's therapist got him to quit drooling in a week by taking a popsicle stick and using it to exercise his lips by moving it up and down.

[katestyles]

My husband's therapist got him to quit drooling in a week by taking a popsicle stick and using it to exercise his lips by moving it up and down.

I can't quite picture this - can you give more details?

[Barbee]

I bought one of these:

The Eliminator Series Washable Travel Sleep Pillow (Sleepy Grey) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079C7HFGZ/re ... 0Cb2834PJB

My mouth can open enough to breathe thru it if i want but it keeps it from being cavernous enough for drool to fall out. And if I tuck my chin just a little, it holds my mouth closed so i can breathe thru my nose.

[katestyles]

I have begun using an absorbent medical dressing with my mouth tape as the drool was making the adhesive come unstuck.

[biomed]

I'm a belly sleeper and mouth breather who has drooling issues. I just don't like nasal masks. I'm also concerned anything I put inside my mask might be swallowed, so I tried something with a "safe" adhesive - a piece of one of my wife's sanitary napkins, pantie liner or pad. If they're allowed anywhere near her ultra-sensitive girly parts, they should be OK. One problem - the gentle pad adhesive won't stick to the inside of the mask, but sticks just fine to my chin. I've experimented with several Colonel Sanders-like mini goatees. Amusing, but functional. Doesn't seem to irritate my skin.

I've also tried a piece of pad or a folded mini-Kleenex between the mask and a washable CPAP Cover, like the RespLabs blue Full Face Liner. The elastic liner will secure the Kleenex.

Any thick absorbent material may encourage a leak and will take some experimentation.

One thing I've noticed - any part of a full face mask that comes near my lower lip, especially the corners, encourages reflexive salivation. Also, one would think air forced into the mouth would be drying, but air passing over the corners of the lip create a small amount of evaporative cooling that feels just like drooling to a belly sleeper.

I haven't tried anything like a chin strap to encourage nasal breathing.

[biomed]

Make sure the pantie liner or pad is unscented.