- When it comes to CPAP masks,
there's a lot of different styles, but what are the pros
and cons of each style and which masks is most suitable
for you.
stick around and I'll walk you through it.
(Upbeat music)
- hello guys, Nicky from CPAP reviews.
Great to be with you as always, thanks
for tuning in wherever you are in the world.
Now, when you first get diagnosed with sleep apnea
and you're told you need to a CPAP mask
it can be very, very confusing.
There's just so much variety
with the styles and all the manufacturers
that it can be a little bit overwhelming.
which is why I thought I'd do a little video
just explaining the different styles
and what are the pros and cons of each of those styles.
Now, a few years back, I did another video where I talked
about the three main styles; the pillows, the nasal
and the full face mask.
And that video is very amateurish, but I still love it.
And many people still watch it,
but I thought it's time to do an updated video
Because there is new technology.
There are new varieties of CPAP masks available.
So I thought I'd talk you through them.
So just in front of me here, I have the different varieties.
So just starting here on my left
I have the hybrid full face mask, the standard nasal mask,
the standard full mask, the nasal pillow or pillow mask.
And then we have these new masks that I refer
to them as cradle mask or nasal cradle masks.
Now just for simplicity, I've removed the headgear
from some of the masks, just cause it's a bit messy
and it's a lot easier to see the actual interface.
The part that actually connects with the face
cause that's where most
of the changes is in the variety of the masks.
All right.
So the first mask style we're gonna talk
about today is the nasal pillow mask or pillow mask.
Now a pillow mask is one that seals at the nostrils.
So it has these two little prongs
or pillows that gently push up and seal at the nostrils.
Now, the reason I love the nasal pillow mask so
much is that they're so small, lightweight and minimalistic.
So when you're moving around of a nighttime in bed
you don't feel like you have this big cumbersome mask on.
It's very light
and it's very easy to maneuver with over nighttime.
There's also less components.
So, you're not having to fiddle arms
with clips and like tightening different parts of the strap.
It's very easy to put on and take off.
It's simply just sort of pull up over the head
pull down over the head and away you go.
Another reason I love the nasal pillow mask so much is
that you don't have a lot
of red marks on your face in the morning.
I know it's a little bit embarrassing
for some of you that have full face masks
or nasal masks after eight hours, you tend to get
at these red sort of marks over the bridge
of your nose and down the side of your cheeks here
with the nasal pillow mask, because it's so minimalistic.
And because it seals at the nostrils
you don't get so many of those red marks.
You might get a few little ones
from the straps, but that's it.
I love the fact that these masks come
with all the different size cushions so
that you can find one that suits your nostrils.
And because it's only sealing at the nostrils
they generally seal really well.
You don't get a whole lot
of masks leaks with the nasal pillow masks I find.
with some of those other masks,
you're having to seal this whole area around your face.
And when you're moving around and pushing your head
against the pillow, it can like push
the cushion a bit and then you can get a whole lot
of different mask leaks going on
which can be very, very frustrating.
As many of you would already know.
Now these masks are great for people that have beards
or facial hair most, if you've got a great mustache
that you're loving and you're tweaking it around
then this mask is great
because very hard to get a good seal with facial hair.
Now when it comes to the cons,
So if you are at the higher end of the pressure
these might be a bit difficult
for you because the pressure itself is very direct.
Okay? cause they're sealing at the nostrils
it's just shooting up into your nasal cavity.
So it can feel quite intense
if you're on higher pressures compared to the low ones.
So once you get up above 15, 16, you can use them.
Might also feel a little bit more challenging when
you are exhaling, when you're breathing out
because there's not a lot
of a big cavity there to breath air into.
Times, People complain of sore nostrils.
Now, if you are getting sore nostrils
best thing to do is take it off.
Let your nostrils sort of heal a bit
and then put it back on.
So maybe had a couple of days break.
You don't want to be continuously rubbing it.
It's like a blister on your foot.
You know, you gotta give it a bit of a break.
These little parts around your nose will firm up.
They will get used to it, take it off
give your nose a break and then go back.
You'll find that over a little period of time
you won't get that irritation and soreness thing.
but that's the nasal pillow mask.
I highly recommend to most of my patients to start
with a pillow mask or something minimalistic like that.
Even if you are told that you're a mouth breather
or even if you put it
on in the beginning and you're like, I can't breathe out.
This is too difficult for me.
What I recommend you do is start a low pressure.
Like I tell all my patients, start with a nasal pillow mask
and just practice for a couple of weeks.
Just keep putting it on, breathing with it
breathing with it, breathing with it.
And then if after a couple of weeks to, you know, a month
even you're not used to it, then you move on to a
a different style mask, like a full face mask or so forth
but try and always start with these nasal pillows
because if you can get used to it in the beginning
in the long run, it's gonna make using CPAP
therapy a whole lot more enjoyable for you.
All right.
let's move on, shall we?
let's go to these nasal cradle masks.
So these are a new one.
These nasal cradle masks have, instead
of having the pillows that go up into the nose
it's more of a little cradle.
now, the cradle it's a similar design to the nasal pillow
but they don't have those bits that stick up into the nose.
Your nose sort of sits in a little cradle section.
Now, So they have all the similar benefits
of a nasal pillow mask that I talked about.
The minimalism that they're light, easy to move around with
not a whole lot
of straps and clips and everything like that
but they don't get that sort of intense
up into the nose feeling
that you can get from the nasal pillows.
Your nose just sits gently in the cushion.
Now this has got like a bit of a, a pro and con effect.
The pro is you don't sort of get that annoyance
of having the, the pillows up
in the nostril there and that direct pressure
but the downside is you might not get the same sort
of great seal that you get with the pillows.
so they can be a little bit hit and miss
because you're not, you know, sealing at that nostril there.
And your nose is sort of sitting in the cushion.
Sometimes they can be a bit hit and miss with the seal.
And once again, when that pressure gets high,
it's a lot harder to get that seal.
So a little point there, try
and keep your pressure as low as possible.
I talk about this in a lot of my videos.
learn how to adjust the therapy levels of your own machines.
Learn how to use your data
to show you where your pressure levels need to be.
I do a lot of tutorials on this stuff
but that way you can get your machine to work
at the lowest pressure possible to give you the best results
and it's gonna make wearing your mask
and getting a good seal a whole lot easier
for you.
Moving on. Now we're gonna talk about just a nasal
a standard nasal mask.
Very basic.
It literally just covers your nose like so, okay.
And then you have your, your straps.
The positive of a nasal mask is
that they worked well at great at
higher pressure levels compared to the pillow mask.
So if you still want a smaller mask, but you're
on a higher pressure, this is a great one for you.
They have a quite secure,
because they do have quite a, you know
I'll show you one of the sort of harness or the head straps.
So they've got a bit of head Strap to them.
So they sort of secure here and here
so that when you're moving around over nighttime
and moving around in your bed, the mask is very secure.
You are gonna get a great seal on the mask.
the downside to the nasal mask is, you know
you have to deal with the bridge of the nose issues.
Many of you sort of get the sore bridge of the nose
especially if you've got like a bit of a, you know
raised bridge of the nose. You're probably gonna get a lot
of irritation at this spot here.
They do have have a lot of straps.
So there is a bit more going on and it's a bit more clips
and a bit more adjusting going on, a few more components
but you know, if you've tried a nasal pillow
or a nasal cradle and the pressure's getting a bit too much
for you and you're struggling, then you'd probably go
to a try and not just a standard nasal.
This one, here's a nasal too.
And a lot of them now come in what they call a fit pack
which comes with, you know, this part here
which is the cushion, a medium, small, large
maybe a wide cushion as well.
So you can sort of buy them
and then pick the right one for you.
Now we'll go to a full face mask.
So a full face mask
by definition seals around your nose and your mouth.
Okay. So you can sort of see here
if I put it on the face there, you can see
that it's actually covering the nose and the mouth.
Now the benefit of the full face mask is
that because it's covering your nose...
I really forgot it, I should have talked about this before.
One of the downsides of these nasal varieties
or any nasal variety is you can't breathe
through your mouth.
It's obviously a big downside.
So you have to be just breathing through your nose.
All right.
I forgot that before.
So with the full face mask
because we're now sealing around your nose and your mouth
it gives you the option of breathing through your nose
through your mouth, any way you like, you can breathe.
Okay. Some of you are what you
what we refer to as mouth breathers.
I don't like that term because, you know,
I think it's a bit of a made up term
but if you're someone who struggles to breathe
through your nose, maybe you got some like bad high fever
or you're just always getting clogged up.
You might have nasal polyps, you know, deviated septum.
When someone knocked you at primary school
or something like that, then you know, you might be going
to a full face mask because you can put this full face mask
on and you can breathe through your nose or your mouth.
Okay.
The downside of the full face mask is that they're bit big,
a bit cumbersome, quite claustrophobic.
You've got a seal right around here.
So when you're lying down over nighttime in your face
sort of squishes on the pillow
you're gonna get a few more leaks, most likely.
And also you're gonna get more red marks.
Yeah. They're just a bit more big and bulky.
But for some of you, this is the sort
of the only sort of choice you're gonna have is
a full face mask or a full face mask hybrid.
Cause you might just not be able to get used
to one of these nasal ones where you have to breathe just
through your nose.
Moving on.
This is the new one.
These are like what we call full face hybrid masks.
So these are a new type they're sort of a cross
between a full face mask and a nasal cradle.
So basic instead of coming up
I'll sort of show you it here.
So you can see with the standard full face mask
how it comes up over the bridge of the nose here.
with these cradles, you can see here
it doesn't come up over the bridge of the nose.
All right.
It has this cradle section in it, still covers the mouth
but it has a little cradle where your nose sort of sits.
So you see that like that, it's not coming up over here.
All right.
Now the beauty of that is that, it's still
full face mask still, gives you that option to breathe
through your mouth or your nose, whichever way you like
but you don't have such a big full face mask.
It's not So claustrobic, you don't have, you know
all this stuff in front of your eyes.
So you can, you know, put your glasses on and read a book.
If you wanna do that before bed.
Some of you like to watch a bit
of TV when you're nodding off.
this sort of gives you that clear line of sight.
It's a bit smaller, a bit lighter, a bit easier to maneuver
and you're not sort of gonna have to deal
with also the bridge of the nose issue,
which many of you have to deal
with where you get so that sore bridge of the nose.
So this is definitely worth having a look at
if you do need a full face mask, there's a few varieties
and I'll put some links of some different masks you can look
at in the description of the video.
downsides to these hybrids is that this part here where you
name the cradle sections similar to the, the nasal cradle
is that it can be a little bit hit and miss
for people trying to size it upright and trying to get
a really good seal at that section.
And unfortunately, because it's sort of aiming up
if you get a good seal, the air sort of shoots
up and it, you know, you can get puffy eyes and
and a whole lot of things like that.
So certainly I think if you are gonna go
for a full face mask these days, I would be recommending
that you start trying to go for a, a hybrid to begin with.
And then if you can't get a good seal with a hybrid
then you go to a standard cushion.
You're probably gonna have more success getting
a really good seal, but that's where we're at now.
So there's a bit of variety there for you to have a look at,
like most things in CPAP I highly recommend
that you just trial them out for yourself.
persist in the beginning and see where you go.
But when you go and get fitted in the hospital
or in a clinic,
they only have a limited amount of time to see you.
And majority of the time as well
they're not gonna run through all the different mask styles
because this takes too long and they're probably
not gonna show you or fit all the mask styles on you either.
So they'll probably show your pillow
and a full face mask or a nasal.
So just be aware that there are more masks out there.
You need to do your research,
but check out all the little videos that I do
on all the different masks.
If you see something that you really like, maybe you know,
you like that because it has the connection
at the top and it's gonna, you know,
you sleep on your stomach or something like that.
Then obviously you can, you know,
choose something that's gonna suit the way that you sleep.
But anyway, that's end of it for today.
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take care and sleep well, all the best.