mouth breather to nose breather?

[lullaby]

I've been a mouth breather most of my life but i'm having a lot of hassles with ffm and leaking. I'd like to give some nasal masks a try. I tried breathing through my nose the other night and it seemed to be ok. Just wondering if many people here started on CPAP as mouth breathers but were able to make the change to nose breathing? If so, do you have nay tips?

[LSAT]

You may find it easy to breath through your nose when you are awake, but while asleep you will more than likely revert back to mouth breathing. Even mouth leaks on exhale will cause a high AHI.

[Bobby269]

You can try one of these to help if you want to give a nose mask a try. https://www.cpap.com/productSearch.php? ... outh+strap

[Julie]

Have you considered taping (do a search on the forum for ideas about it)?

[Roger2]

That is not that big of a problem but it does have a couple of problems like your mouth drying out while sleeping and not having the advantage of your nose’s built in filtration system (nasal hairs).

I recently found an over the counter spray at the drugstore called “biotene Moisturizing Mouth Spray” for dry mouth relief. I found this really helps but I usually have to unfasten the lower straps on my mask to use it in the middle of the night.

Roger

[archangle]

A chin strap may or may not work. Even if you keep your teeth closed, your lips may still open and let air leak out.

Some people say lots of humidification helps them. Trying to keep your chin pointed up or down might affect mouth breathing as well.

Taping can, in theory, lead to suffocation if the power or machine quits in the night and and you don't wake up. Or to aspiration pneumonia if you vomit in the night and don't get the tape off quickly enough. A number of people here do it anyway.

[jbn3boys]

I breathed through my mouth when sleeping all the time prior to cpap therapy. Once I started using cpap, I was able to breathe through my nose only, with no problems. Turns out the only reason I was breathing through my mouth was in an effort to try to get enough air. I know this happens for some people, it may be for you as well.

One thing about dry mouth---if you wake up with a dry mouth, you are mouth breathing, and therefore NOT receiving adequate therapy. If you wake up with a dry mouth, you will need to find a way to keep your mouth closed, or go back to a full face mask or a hybrid mask.

Taping can, in theory, lead to suffocation if the power or machine quits in the night and and you don't wake up. Or to aspiration pneumonia if you vomit in the night and don't get the tape off quickly enough. A number of people here do it anyway.

That is true in theory. In real life, "most" people will wake up in the presence of no airflow. Since I've never vomited in my sleep, I guess I just wouldn't worry about that. Any time I have vomited, I was too nauseous/uncomfortable to sleep, and I would not be wearing my mask anyway.

[deerhound]

I traine myself to breathe through my nose by watching a lot of TV for weeks with my BiPAP machine hooked up to a Swift II mask I bought at cpapauction.. I would use my FFM at night while trying to concentrate on breathing through my nose. After many football games watched while using my machine I finally felt I could use my nasal pillow mask at night. I rarely have mouth leak trouble.

[jimnsc]

Hello lullaby - I responded to your post and hit submit and my post disappeared. Irritated? You bet because I'm not a typist but here we go again. I wanted to reply because I was where you are 4 months ago - I was a confirmed mouth breather with a deviated septum in my left nostril. I knew I could never convert but the thing I didn't know was the air going into my nose would remedy that problem during treatment. I feel like I get much better treatment through my nose than a combo of nose/mouth in a ffm. If you experiment by breathing through your nose only in a ffm and it doesn't work out, don't let that bother you. You can still use nasal pillows. Here are a few things I experienced in changing.

I got sore nares at the outset but through some knowledgeable folks here I learned of a salve called Lansinoh that nursing mothers use (Wal-Mart next to the baby bottles). Good stuff and seems the tube will last a long time.

I can use either medium or large pillows but the large seal best and give me better AHI's. I just had a hard time admitting to myself I had some JImmy Durante genes.

I had the same problem most do with losing air through my mouth. I first tried tape on my mouth and could entertain you for a half hour the experiences I had with - not for me but others do it with ease.

I tried 4 different chin straps costing as much as $66. I settled for the Resperonics Ultimate (12 dollars at amazon dot com). I'm happy to report I'm using it less and less as I am slowly training my self to breathe through my nose. The best tip I got was to place the tip of my tongue to the roof of my mouth right behind the front teeth. You'd do well to practice that regardless of mask used.

I still will have occasional exhalations through my lips but not enough to distort the numbers.

I have oily skin on my face and nose and have found that washing the pillows after each use (5 minutes) yields a btter seal the next time. I rotate between 3 masks - Swift FX - Swift II - Swift LT and each serves me well, so I wash three sets of pillows at once every three days.

My treatment has become routine but every several weeks I"l have an unexpected bad night due to coughing, sneezing, or an unexplained leak and score a rotten AHI for the night. Nothing is perfect. Not much about this sport is inexpensive either. Learn to ask questions here before you run out and spend a lot of money -I have spent unnecessary $ due to impatience; for example, don't buy Pad-A-Cheek strap covers before you even know you'll like the mask you buy them for. You may already know they are excellent in every way but you sure don't need them if you don't keep the mask.

Didn't mean to bore you with too much info - just trying to save you some grief, money and to offer you some encouragement to change if you care to change. It can be done and I wish you good luck!

[lullaby]

Thanks for your replies. As i'm still on a trial, i'm going to try as many masks as i can. I'm keen to give one of the hybrid masks a try - seems to offer the best of both worlds. As i've mentioned on some other posts, i'm on week 3 and can only tolerate wearing a ffm for an hour or two until the leaking drives me mad. As a result, cpap is still not working for me however i'm determined to get it right - or throw the lot out the window!

[archangle]

That is true in theory. In real life, "most" people will wake up in the presence of no airflow. Since I've never vomited in my sleep, I guess I just wouldn't worry about that. Any time I have vomited, I was too nauseous/uncomfortable to sleep, and I would not be wearing my mask anyway.

In real life, 5 out of 6 people in a Russian Roulette game escape unharmed.

If you're not afraid of aspiration pneumonia, you haven't read up on it.

[Bobby269]

If after searching for a mask and you decide that only a full face mask works for you so be it. Why would reputable Companies sell full face masks if
they didn't provide good therapy. In my case I have been using a full face mask for 7 months, The mirage quatro ffm and then the quatro fx ffm. My first 1 1/2 months were a little rough. Then I was able to get and use the ResScan software . From this I was able to determine that I had leaks. Once fixed my AHI's
stay in the range of 0.0 to 0.5. I haven't felt this good in a long time. It's true that you can get dry mouth but Biotene takes care of that. Turning the
temperature of the Humidifier up a little helps also.But above 81 for me is to warm.

[finallywakingup]

I broke my nose when I was 20 and after 8 surgeries it is now rebuilt with a part of one of my ribs. Can't normally breath well through it and have been a mouth breather since. I find that using much higher pressures than were recommended after my sleep study allow me to use nasal pillows more easily (8 was recommended--use 15 with AFLEX set to 3). Being able to breath through my nose when I sleep is actually a very pleasant experience. I still open my mouth without a chinstrap, but I open it less at the higher pressure (because it is easier to breath through my nose). I still use a chin strap and my finance says I never open my mouth with it on.

[archangle]

If after searching for a mask and you decide that only a full face mask works for you so be it. Why would reputable Companies sell full face masks if they didn't provide good therapy.

Full Face Masks are great if you can't make a nasal mask work. I simply think that a nasal mask should always be tried first. If you have mouth leaks you can't resolve, or simply prefer the full face mask, that's great.

I think DMEs give out a lot of FFMs to newbies because they don't have to do as much work as they do with a nasal mask. If a FFM doesn't work for the patient, they simply say, "Tough it out, wimp!" To find the correct mask for a patient, you need to try a nasal mask, maybe deal with some size and adjustment issues, chin straps, maybe switch to a pillow design, try a few masks, then, if all else fails, go finally to an FFM. Easier to simply ignore the patients' comfort and go directly to an FFM without explaining their choices.

I think the FFM is the least comfortable choice, but it's sort of the "big gun" that succeeds when all else fails. I don't think patients should be forced into an FFM unless all else fails. What's the biggest problem with CPAP? It's noncompliance. Foisting an FFM off onto a new patient without trying the more comfortable, less invasive options is simply malpractice through laziness.

[okitoki]

I was a bad case of mouth breather before I started using the CPAP.
I would blame my sinus of causing it to be difficult for the breath through my mouth. Even now as I am typing this, I can feel it blocking up causing me to "gasp" for air.

I found that onces I started using the nasal pillow, it depends on how my nose is when I go to bed... if it is cleared, the air would have a smooth passage and I am pretty much able to breath through my nose with no issue.
However, if I have a blocked nose, I find that air going in is still ok, but breathing out is the problem.... I used to give up on nights with blocked nose, but I found out that if I keep the mask on to breath in, but breath out through my mouth... this is done while awake... it would clear up my nose after a short while... this is done with my humidifier set pretty high up.

But at the end, I always need to have the humidifier on... even with clear nose, if it is too dry and cold... it would start to close up pretty quick.

I tried nasal wash, and have to admit that it grossed me out a little i also use those Vicks nasal sniffer thing... it really helps with clearing the nose quick