Write a reply

Leaks from mask or just mouth breathing?

When I look at my sleep data, I'm confused as to whether my leak score is a result of air whooshing through my mouth or whether it's the actual nasal pillows that are leaking. Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

Are you using OSCAR or SleepyHead? If so, you may be a be able to tell from what the leaks look like. My wife does not mouth tape and uses a Brevida nasal pillow mask. She normally does not get a lot of leakage, but last night she had a few. The characteristic of a mouth leak is said to be a sudden leak with a flat top, while a mask displacement due to head position on the pillow is a more gradual increasing leak with a sudden drop. I would suggest the first leak event in this series is likely a mask position leak, as well as the last one in the series. The series in the middle of the night are more likely to be mouth leaks.

I'm using ResMed feedback because I can't download OSCAR or SleepyHead on my digital devices. ResMed makes no distinction between the type of leaks.

Was plagued by leaks when first started CPAP. Although not recommended by docs (or my spouse), I taped my mouth for one night, and the leak rate was zero. This ruled out mask leak.

It is difficult to adequately treat OSA with CPAP using a nasal mask when there’s frequent mouth leaks.

I was able to conquer mouth breathing by using a soft cervical collar (SCC). Chinstraps were hardly effective. And I cannot tolerate full face masks (and will not help if you don’t have exact fit).

I use a SCC from Walgreens but it needs to be modified for comfort. This involves cutting off the thick ends and bridging with a piece of cloth and sewing the Velcro piece onto to it.

On a few nights, actually had zero leaks wearing the SCC!