Posted by Oscar on February 01, 2002 at 10:50:02:

Have been on auto CPAP for 7 days now, and feeling much better. Now that I'm more rested, I'm starting to wake up a lot with the "mouth breathing" problem. It's not that I inhale though my mouth, but the CPAP pressure occasionally leaks through part of my throat, and escapes into my mouth. (auto CPAP set at 11-15cm h2o, happens at both lower and higher pressures, using Breeze system pillows).

I tried taping my mouth shut a couple of nights (since then have discovered this is not a good/safe thing to do). But even when I do that, I'll wake up with my cheeks all puffed out like a chipmunk. Searched through a number of the older forums, but still have a couple of questions:

I thought I’d make a Reno Tom chin strap. Even if this keeps the air in, I guess my cheeks will still puff out. Is this common? Something you learn to get used to? (sleep with your face all puffed out?) Do you still get this phenomenon if you use a full face mask? (Or does the edges of the mask tend to hold the cheeks down?)

I've still got a lot to learn….

Follow Ups:

• Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Nik 15:02 2/02/02 (0)
• Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Barney Rubble 16:21 2/01/02 (2)
  • Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Oscar 19:56 2/01/02 (1)
    • Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Barney Rubble 07:21 2/02/02 (0)
• Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? AlA 14:59 2/01/02 (1)
  • Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Oscar 19:52 2/01/02 (0)
• Re: Chipmunk Cheeks !? Cue Miller 12:29 2/01/02 (0)

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