Resmed Airfit P10 - 10 day review

So, I've had my Airfit P10 for 10 days now and thought I would give my thoughts.

This is my first nasal pillow, having has the Respironics Amara and Resmed Quattro FX (both full face masks previously). I'm a mouth breather which is why I used FF masks, but I just couldn't bear to have them on my face for longer than a few hours - generally ripping them off during my sleep after 2 hours or so.

Hence, I decided to try nasal pillows - was going to go for the Swift FX, then I heard about the Airfit P10 on this forum. For some strange reason, my box only came with the medium-sized pillows, so that's all I've been able to trial. I use some surgical tape over my mouth to stop me mouth breathing. Also, i should point out that I have a deviated septum and was advised to stay away from nasal pillows for that reason - the shop didn't want to sell me the airfit, but I persuaded them because I have surgery in a few months anyway......

So, to cut to the chase, I'm delighted with the mask. I have been averaging 5 - 6 hours a night with it which is a significant improvement on the 2 - 3 hours I would get with a FF mask. I still find I want to take it off once I've had my first major wake-up event, but that' just a bad habit that needs to be broken. The mask itself is SO comfortable, you barely know it's there. It's hard to imagine how they could have made it any better or any more comfortable in any way. Actually, when you wake up, you forget you've got it on, it's really that good.

The nasal pillows themselves are great - they make a perfect seal with my nostrils without hardly any pressure - in fact, you can pull the mask off of your face by about 1mm - 2mm before air starts leaking out.

My AHI is down in the 3-point-something territory now with 90% pressure levels hovering around 6 - 8. With a FF mask I was getting 5-7 AHI and pressure levels of 9 - 11, so big difference.

For the first few nights I was using a nasal decongestant just before bed because I didn't feel my nostrils were opened enough to allow me to get enough air, but I've since stopped this because the nasal pillows seems to be gradually clearing my nasal passages out and keeping them open through the day which is just a glorious feeling.

Overall, 100% delighted with the mask - after 18 months of using CPAP and being fairly disappointed overall, this has transformed my CPAP usage and, so far, i can feel the benefits through the day (more energy, easier to concentrate etc etc). Hopefully, long may it continue!!!

My only gripe was the missing Small and Large nasal pillows - in the end, it looks like Medium was perfect for me, but the packaging is 100% misleading since it clearly states Small and Large are inside. I called Resmed about it and they took the serial numbers from me and said that this is the 'American Packaging' and should never have been resold in Australia - they were gong to take this up with the shop that sold me it (777Pharmacy). Interestingly enough, it was an American girl on the phone I talked to and I suspect that she was actually in an American call centre. Hence, for those of you in the US, beware of this potential issue. I don't know what Resmed are thinking of to package something that is clearly blatantly incorrect and misleading.

Please don't let that detract from what I believe is a terrific product!!

Glad you enjoy the p10 as well! I average about 8 hours with the p10 and also a mouth breather too. I'm in the USA and have all three sizes in my resmed box. Strange to say the least. Take care!

stube40 wrote:
I called Resmed about it and they took the serial numbers from me and said that this is the 'American Packaging' and should never have been resold in Australia - they were gong to take this up with the shop that sold me it (777Pharmacy).

Just received my Airfit yesterday. All three sizes of pillows were in my package. Glad you excited about it though.

I'm in the USA and have all three sizes in my resmed box. Strange to say the least.

Yeah, I suspect there's more to it than that - my guess is that it is probably form a shipment of 'demo' units that are only for American shops and in which they only include the medium nasal pillow to cut costs. Knowing Australia, this big Pharmacy chain has managed to secure a dodgy shipment of these to Oz......

Either way, I honestly couldn't care, but my advice to any Australian users (particularly if you're using 777 Pharmacy) is to make sure they open the bag and fit the unit on you in the shop - if you find the Medium pillows dont fit 100% PERFECTLY and the Small/Large ones aren't in there then walk away because with the right pillows, this product is capable of giving a great seal without much pressure

I too am a user of the P10 and love it.

What I found is even though the medium is a more comfortable fit, the large size actually allows for less restrictive breathing.

Track down a large and see how you like it. Seems like I got mine off of ebay or amazon.

If you don't already know this , you can get just the nasal pillow piece separately and save a few dollars.

Thanks Jim - great idea.

Did you find you had to change the settings on your machine when going from medium to large? Or, did you AHI change as a result?

I found that I had to lower the humidity from 3 to 2 when the machine parked below bed level. Once I moved the machine back to being even with my bed, I had to raise the humidity one level to 3.

We've had a lot of rain lately so some nights, its pretty obvious that only a little water is used out of the water tank. I still dump the water each morning to let it dry out. I recently had a very wicked sinus infection and want to avoid any chance of mold in the system.

As to AHI, its hard to tell as some nights I'll get below .3 and other nights its somewhere around 2.2. I can tell that I feel much more rested with the P10 as the FF mask would move around during the night which probably kept me from getting a good night's sleep. That's something that I don't think the AHI numbers tell.

To kick this ball a little further, I don't think I could have been able to use the P10 until I learned on this forum about how sleep tech get these pressures wrong and that I could use the auto setting to find better pressures. I went from 10 and 16 (bipressure machine) to something like 5 and 10 which varies during the night based on feedback. With lower pressures came additional options for mask.

I can honestly say that I prefer sleeping with the P10 than not using the CPAP machine. I can figure out the phrases on wheel of fortune before the contestants can about half the time where before I never would. Who really cares about wheel of fortune but its to me a sign that my mental abilities have improved.

I use the Auto mode too. However, I think you can help it along the way by narrowing the range - so if you find that your machine reports that your average pressure is between 7 and 9, then maybe setup the machine to have a range of 5 to 11 - if that makes sense. Just means that the auto algorithm spends less time hunting at the start of the evening.

Wheel of fortune - I once guessed the book JACKIE COLLINS HOLLYWOOD HUSBANDS when there wasn't a single letter on the board. How's that for a lucky guess? It just sprang to mind and I realised that it fitted the word shapes

I have had my P10 for 4 days. I used it the first 2 days and my nostrils got tender so I switched back to my old pillows (Mirage Swift II) for 2 days to let my nostrils heal. I am going back to the P10 tonight.

When I went from a nasal mask to my Mirage Swift II pillows many years ago my nostrils were even more sore than they are with the P10. So I am not too worried about adapting to the P10.

I agree that the P10 stay in my nostrils better than my old pillows. The conical portion that go into my nostrils are steeper then my old pillows... this different geometry is also what is causing the irritation because the pillows contact my nostrils deeper in my nose... where my nostrils have not toughened up yet.

I also have a deviated septum. Why are you not supposed to use pillows with a deviated septum?

Oughtsix wrote:Why are you not supposed to use pillows with a deviated septum?

Beats me unless people assume that everyone with a deviated septum can't breathe well through their nose and should therefore resign themselves to using a full face mask all the time.
There's no physical reason though because those little cones just barely go into the nostrils. I think it's just another old wives tale that won't die....just like the old wives tale saying you can't use nasal pillows with higher pressures.

Totally what Pugsy said about old wives tales. I was told I couldn't use nasal pillows at a pressure of 14 because it was too high a pressure. I've used nasal pillows almost exclusively for nearly four years now.

I agree that the pressure in my nose tends to clear my nose pretty quickly. The only thing I hate, I loathe, about the P10 is the headgear. They couldn't have made it worse if they'd had a horrible design contest. So I wear a hat when I sleep in order to keep the straps from coming off my head. Otherwise, I like the P10 better than the Swift FX.

Oughtsix: FYI: If the P-10 is irritating your nares try using the large size pillows. I usually wear a size medium in pillows, but found that I needed to go up a size with this mask.

Hope this helps!

Janice

jwerley wrote:but found that I needed to go up a size with this mask.

I also found that I had to go up a size. In all the other nasal pillow masks I have been able to use XSmall and Small pretty much equally but with the P10 I couldn't use the XSmall as it would sort of seal too good and collapse upon inhale and that meant no air movement and was uncomfortable. I think with inhale that too much of the inner cones got sort of sucked up into my nostrils and caused the collapse.
So for me the Small or Medium seems to be best choice for sizes. I was waking up way too often with the XSmall collapsed and would have to momentarily pull the pillows away from my nose so that they would inflate again. It doesn't happen with the Small or Medium size.

While the sizing looks pretty much identical to the Swift FX nasal pillows (which I can easily use the XSmall) for some reason it doesn't work out to be the same size for me. We aren't alone in this regard...I have heard of several people needing to step up a size for optimal performance.

I bought my first P10 from cpap.com, a sealed package with three pillows. I now get the P10 from my DME (Monitor Medical), along with spares that Medicare provides. Since my DME knows I use large pillows, they open my hermetically sealed P10 package and remove the small and medium pillows. I'm sure this is done under sterile conditions.

I have tried the P10s and really like the low profile of course, but just can;t get them to fit into my nostrils properly. I spend 5 minutes playing with it, then just usually give up and go back to my wisp. I have practiced in the middle of the day doing it, but getting into bed it just turns into a big frustration session. Seems like the right hand nostril just won't seal. I am using the Small, but maybe need to try the Med? Any other advice on the right procedure for getting them settled onto my nose?

Thanks, T