Newbie question about mouth breathing

SlapShot · Post by **SlapShot** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:53 am

6 nights in... finally slept nearly a whole night with the machine - I feel confident I can make this work!

I'm not sure if I'm mouth breathing on occasion. Would this show up in leak rate and/or AHI? I'm guessing both - air leaks out of the mouth, so the therapy isn't as effective, so higher AHI and leak rate.

I don't have the Encore Pro software yet, so all I have to go on is the machine readout. My leak rate seems acceptable - 8 - , but the AHI is a tad high (4.2). These are the 7-day averages.

My guess is that my pressure might be a little too low. Titration showed that I had a good breathing pattern at 6 but I was somewhat disturbed at 5. My doctor set my pressure to 5.5 to begin with (knowing that I might have difficulty getting used to CPAP.) Yes, I realize these pressures are low in comparision to a lot of people. Believe me, I'm grateful for that!

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Titration, Encore Pro, CPAP, AHI

mikemoran · Post by **mikemoran** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:14 pm

If you are mouth breathing on a consitent basis then the leak rate would be high. You would also notice a very dry mouth. You might be doing it on occasion but your leak rate and AHI doesn't seem to reflect that.

Remember anything below 5 AHI is good, and despite the numbers the best indicator is how you feel. Since you are just starting out you are still getting used to things so it will take some time. I wouldn't worry about mouth breathing with the kind of numbers you are getting.