- Today, I'm gonna be showing you a few products
that can really help with CPAP mask irritation
and those annoying red marks.
(upbeat music)
Hi guys, my name's Nick
and welcome back to my channel, "CPAP Reviews."
For those of you already subscribed,
thanks for your continued support.
And for those of you tuning in for the first time
this is my little education channel
on snoring and sleep apnea,
and some of the products that we use
to treat those conditions,
in particular, CPAP equipment.
So if that's something that interests you
then please consider subscribing
and joining our growing community.
Alrighty, so, for those of you
who are already wearing CPAP masks
and especially those of you who are just starting out
I'm sure you have already experienced some of those
really annoying side effects from wearing CPAP masks
in particular soreness of your face
especially around the bridge of the nose.
If you've got a full face mask
or perhaps some nasal irritation in your nostrils
if you're wearing a nasal pillow mask.
And just waking up in the morning with a lot of red marks
which can sometimes take a few hours before they disappear.
There is that period in the beginning
where the skin needs time to adjust,
it will get firmer,
It will protect itself over time with that rubbing.
In the meantime, there are some products which we can use
just to help us get by
until our skin does develop that resistance,
and I'm gonna talk about them today.
So the first product is called a CPAP Chap,
and that's developed by a company called RespLabs.
And basically what it is,
it's like a moisturizing balm,
that you can put on those sore,
irritated red spots on your face
and it's gonna help those spots heal a bit quicker,
and also relieve some of that inflammation
and soreness from those spots.
So it's full of things like aloe vera, vitamin A, vitamin E
and a few other additives that really help protect the skin
and revive the skin and stop it getting so red.
So guys, like any sort of skin irritation
it's really important that you give the skin
a break and time to repair and rejuvenate from the stress
of having a CPAP mask on
or a new set of shoes
or whatever it is.
You don't wanna continuously be putting the mask on
if you do have a sore on your nose.
Take it off, have a few days break, let that sore recover
and use a bit of Chap just to speed along the process.
And then after that,
you can put your mask back on and go from there,
but you really need to let that skin heal up
and then it will develop resistance over time.
The next product we're gonna have a look at
are these skin friction protectors
which are like a little membrane.
A little gel based membrane that you can peel off
and put on your skin just to provide a barrier
between your skin and the mask.
They come in a pack of about 100
and they're relatively affordable.
But basically it's pretty straightforward,
you just sort of peel them off, right?
And then if you get in a bit of a sore
bridge of the nose here
you can just place it on the bridge of the nose like so
and then you put your mask over that
and that just provides that barrier for you.
So that's a really good one there
and it's obviously gonna help with those red marks as well.
Another product is called Nexcare Tape, by 3M.
One of my subscribers put me onto this.
It's hypoallergenic which is great,
and it's a bit porus
so it allows your skin to breathe.
And it's also easy to take on and off.
So it doesn't hurt when you're putting it on off.
You can just cut a little strip,
say again, you getting that bridge of the nose issue
and you can just put that Nexcare Tape
on the bridge of your nose like so,
and that once again provides that nice barrier for your skin
and then you can peel it off.
Something you might like to do
is just put like a tiny little dog,
just fold it over on one corner there before you put it on.
Like so, and that way when you go to take it off
it's nice and easy to sort of find that little dog tag
and away you go.
Lastly I'm gonna talk about CPAP mask liners.
So, these are a material barrier
that goes in between your mask cushion and your face.
Now these mask liners help with things like mask leaks,
obviously the skin irritation and the soreness
but it also helps with those red marks.
So it's like a full barrier system.
And basically they design these
specifically for different masks.
So you might get one for full face mask style.
You might get one for a nasal mask style in medium.
This little cut here,
the material is really nice and soft.
It's like a soft cotton,
really light, really thin and breathable as well.
So you're not gonna get too sweaty from the mask.
And this here is another company
that makes great mask liners as well called Silent Night.
And they're very similar
but just these ones have a bit more of a tab system
where you can actually stick it onto the frame,
so they're a little bit more secure.
And, lastly we have CPAP pillows.
Now CPAP pillows are great
and they're gonna help alleviate some of those red marks
because they have these beautiful contour cutouts.
This one is a RemSleep CPAP pillow
but there's a whole bunch of different shapes and sizes
that you can take a look at.
And I'll put some links
in the description of the video below.
But basically with these contour cutouts
when you're lying there with your mask
you can sort of get over to the side
and half of your face isn't actually on the pillow.
So that means you don't have any of the pressure
from the pillow pushing up onto the strap
which causes those red marks.
The other great thing about them is,
most of them are made of like a memory foam
which means that when you do lie in them
they don't sort of push up around you.
So they stay quite flat across the board
no matter where you're lying on them.
So there's just a few products that you can take a look at.
They can help alleviate some of those problems
with CPAP masks like skin irritation
and those annoying red marks
that are quite embarrassing for some of you.
I have just started a Facebook page.
I know I'm about 20 years too late
but it's a Facebook page for you guys.
So you can get on there
and discuss some of your CPAP problems
or offer advice to each other.
I'll put a link in the description of the video
and I've also started a little forum as well
where I'm gonna post these videos
and just some tips and tricks as well.
And I just thought I'd start this forum
because you can post topics
and that way you can all sort of help each other out.
If you've got some questions, you can put them there.
And not only I will attempt to answer them
but you guys are the ones also using the therapy
so you'll also be able to offer advice
to your fellow CPAP humans. (laughs)
For those of you who are interested
in some of these products,
I will put product links
in the description of the video below.
So you can go and get them.
Most of these products are rated
four or more stars out of five,
and most of them have thousands of reviews.
So you can read the reviews for your self
and make an informed decision.
All right guys, just before I go,
I do wanna give a little shout out to a few subscribers.
John Actin, Stephen Henderson, and Dent Labs
for their very generous channel donations.
Certainly not expected guys, but greatly appreciated.
So thank you very much for your support.
I'll leave it at that.
I hope you're staying safe wherever you are in the world
Until next time,
sleep well and goodnight.
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