Evora Full Face Mask - Dry mouth despite no noticeable leak events

Summary:

• I have been using my Dreamstation for the past few years. I started with a nasal mask, then moved to a F30i when I started having issues with my mouth opening during sleep.

• When using either, I had no issues with a dry mouth as long as no leaks occurred. I use the humidifier & heated tube that comes with the Dreamstation (both set to 5, the max value).

• I ordered an Evora full face mask, due to having to keep the F30i exceedingly tight to avoid leak from chin drop. I'd heard the Evora was better in that department and decided to give it a try.

• The mask does work okay. OSCAR is generally reporting a somewhat lower AHI than I was getting previously.

• I also recently increased the auto pressure from 5 to 9.5. I mainly did this because I knew that the machine's top pressure was around 11-12, so I felt that setting it closer to that value may have helped. I have no idea if I should turn the auto mode off and just set it to a fixed higher value. Any advice here would be appreciated.

• One consistent issue is that I always wake up with an extremely dry mouth, despite the chart showing no apparent leak events. The humidifier is running, the tank isn't completely dry, there's even a bit of condensed moisture on the inside of the mask when I wake up, but my mouth is very dry. My first thought is that the Evora must just have a higher leak rate, and the humidifier isn't able to keep up at the set pressure. Should I raise the pressure because of this?

• Any other advice or warning bells based on the below image would be helpful. I've only recently started paying attention to my OSCAR data regularly.

Image of last night's session (from my 4K monitor, right click and open in new tab for full resolution):

Please organize your chart in the requested manner - wiki/index.php/Oscar:organize

clkerl wrote: ↑

Fri May 05, 2023 4:13 am

(both set to 5, the max value)

Why? CPAP humidifiers are designed to prevent the nasal passages from drying. They don't work well humidifying the mouth. Too much humidity may cause more mouth-breathing. As little as five minutes of mouth-breathing can cause a very dry mouth.

Dry mouth...highly annoying and potentially caused by many factors.
Don't forget to look at medication/drug side effects or other physical causes for dry mouth.
Also don't forget that THC (if you are a user) can also dry out the mouth a lot. After all it is a medication/drug even if people don't don't think of it that way.

So rule out other causes while trying to figure out and fix the problem.

And remember that the oral cavity is much larger than the nasal cavity and the humidifier was never designed to re-hydrate the oral cavity....but if someone isn't yet using more humidity then that is something a person can try to help with the dry mouth. Chances aren't good that more humidity will fix the dry mouth but it is certainly worth trying.

Same problem here, with the same mask. Followed a suggestion here to try to discourage my mouth from opening with a cervical collar, and that did the trick. You could also try mouth tape, if the collar isn't enough. (Or a chin strap, but that did not work for me.)