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A Possible Mouth Breathing Solution

Posted by Sleepy Coote on November 07, 2002 at 22:26:25:

A possible mouth breathing solution just might entail a chinstrap used in combination with a night-time dental guard. From what I've read it seems that quite a few mouth breathers lose air through slightly parted lips, even while sleeping with chinstraps. While I'm brand new to CPAP I've already discovered that I'm a mouth breather. However, I have a custom-made dental guard to prevent me from grinding my teeth at night. Shortly before getting the CPAP I abandoned using my dental guard thinking that CPAP would be enough of a challenge without the dental guard (which is new and strange to me, just as CPAP is).

After mouth-breating three of my first four nights on CPAP I pulled my somewhat new dental guard out of the drawer and tried it with CPAP. So far it has done an amazingly wonderful job of keeping me from mouth breathing --- even without a chinstrap. So it occured to me that an over-the-counter dental guard and chinstrap used together just may help even persistent mouth breathers.

The cheaper over-the-counter dental guards I mentioned are available in the dental section of many pharmacies for around $40. I think I've seen them at the likes of Walmart and Walgreens for about that price. That's certainly a good chunk of change less than I paid my dentist for my custom one! Sure wish I knew about the $40 ones first! I'm not sure but I *think* you may have to boil or heat these over-the-counter dental guards to achieve a customized fit.

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