Posted by BostonBoy on August 08, 2002 at 18:07:41:

In Reply to: need suggestions for nasal pilows posted by pippy on August 08, 2002 at 12:25:04:

The Breeze headgear fitted with nasal pillows is often mentioned with a lot of praise. You can see it pictured at http://www.mallinckrodt.com/respiratory/productcatalog/product.asp?id=208

The five features that I particularly like are the silent exhaust (although its angle is not adjustable); its very high tolerance for side sleeping and sleepers' movement; the very small skin contact area; the ability to don and remove it single-handedly, and the fact that if a blowout leak occurs it is nowhere near the eyes.

But the additional very valuable merit of nasal pillows is that only the inside of your nose is subjected to the prescribed CPAP pressure: the outside of your nose is at atmospheric pressure - unlike what happens when wearing a mask, which subjects both the inside and the outside to the same elevated pressure. Therefore the nasal passages are free to expand a little, and that can work wonders with nasal congestion.

So most people also report that they feel that their nose feels freer, even if they can't explain why.

Some folks never seem to get the hang of adjusting it. Others take to it like a duck to soup. The headgear is adjustable in 3 planes, and because the planes are not at 90deg to each other, the adjustments can be finessed exceptionally well - in other words, there is usually more than one way to achieve a comfortable fit, because very small 'click-type' dimensional changes are possible. When done right the pressure on the head is nominal, and the nasal pillows just about float on the nares.

I'm a back-and-sides guy, and I move a lot during sleep. The rig minimizes torsional contact with the bed pillow, which is what tends to dislodge masks. The setup isn't complete, however, until you have fitted a bungee cord, a rail or a swinging arm at the bed head, to suspend the hose so that it cannot drag on the gear. And, if you live in a cooler climate or like a lot of humidity in the air hose, you will need to sharpen your rainout management skills: there is very little gutter space in the shell (by comparison with the amount of space in a double-skirted nasal mask). I cannot speak for performance when the user has big hair or wants to sleep face-downward.

http://www.sleepnet.com/apnea92/messages/392.html will bring you to a reply to an earlier message that has relevance for your problem with mouth breathing.

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