Apnea Forum Posting

Posted by RenoTom on August 07, 2000 at 22:13:28:

In Reply to: chin lock? posted by Don Bradley (seattle) on August 07, 2000 at 11:39:40:

What I am going to suggest seems too simple, and it may or may not work for you, but it sure has for me.
Start off with a few simple demonstrations to understand the concept of what I want you to try.
First clench your teeth together real tight. Now with your teeth clenched count to your self from one to five. Now count out loud from six to ten.
Okay, so let's try going a little further. With your teeth clenched, take a small sip of water from a glass. Wow! Let's try one more thing. Try to open your lips and breath, of course with your teeth clenched.
No, this isn't an attempt at poking fun at someone. It is an attempt to demonstrate that you can wrap up that jaw pretty good, and still mouth breath. Okay, so what now. How do we stop this mouth breathing.
Try this very simple excercise (and this one you do need to try, it's painless, I promise).
With your teeth together (not clenched unless you want to), let your lips open slightly so that you can softly breath through them. Now, while you are breathing, place your finger across your chin just below your bottem lip (so that your finger is parallel to your lip), and push softly upward and inward against you lip. You should find that it takes very little pressure to close your lip and stop your breathing.
Hopefully you are starting to get the idea that it ain't the jaw, it's the lip, and if you can get someone to hold their finger across your lip all night, we got this problem solved.
Okay, so what do we really do? Well, this one you have to spend a couple of bucks and try for a few days. Go to a fabric store and get enough 1" wide elastic to wrap around your head and have some left over. You pick the color. Also get a couple safety pins.
Now the silly part. Wrap the elastic around your head, and fasten it with a safety pin. You want it to go across your chin, just below your lip, and run at a slight upward angle to the back of your head. You can fasten it to your headgear at the back to keep it from sliping down if you want.
You want the elastic to excert enough pressure on your lip to keep it closed, but no more. It really soesn't take much, and it should not be uncomfortable.
Okay, so what now? Try it for a few days. And see if it works. If it does, then we get to make a real chinstrap.
I hasseled with the mouth breathing issue for a number of months, and finally made my own chin strap about three months ago. After this period of time, the elastic that applies the lip pressure has stretched to the point where it applies very little presssure, but it still is working. I am not mouth breathing. It works on the concept I just described to you.
Don, this is addressed to you, but applies to anyone who mouth breaths. If the above works for you, and you want to make a hinstrap, let me know, and I will tell you the basics of what has worked for me. It is really not hard, and as I said, it works for me. Just let me know.
RenoTom

Follow Ups:

• Re: chin lock? molly 18:23 8/08/00 (0)
• Re: chin lock? Sam (Blue Bell PA) 09:33 8/08/00 (0)

Copyright ©1995-2005 Sleepnet.com., All rights reserved