Respironics Chin Strap - Premium

Have used for years. Always keep them handy

Works.

For what this does, it appears to work fine. I am a new CPAP user, and a definite mouth breather, so I needed something to help keep my mouth closed during the night. I have really goofed up sinuses and serious allergies to nearly every indoor and outdoor allergen tested. The sinuses were mostly repaired thanks to a septoplasty and turbinate reduction (highly recommended if your ENT suggests it). Even after the surgery, and impressive change in that I could finally breathe through my nose, I still end up breathing through my mouth at times, even when my sinuses are not gunked up with whatever funk is currently reproducing like mad.My first night at home with a full face mask left me with a paper dry mouth, which is not a pleasant way to wake up multiple times a night, defeating the purpose to the therapy. In perusing the various CPAP user websites, I came across various solutions, such as taping and gluing one's mouth closed. Not keen on the asphyxiation possibilities, I chose to pass on these. Flexible straps like this one seemed a safer option.This works by pulling your chin up and closing your mouth. At least it is designed for this and it does seem to work, but just closing your mouth does not stop the flow of air in and out of one's mouth; it also involves your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, something this cannot really help. It gets one partly there, so I believe it works as intended. I found after several weeks use that it was causing my jaw to shift, which unfortunately bothers an old neck injury, so I slowly tapered off use. It did seem to help me get used to my mouth being closed and possibly helped beef up the muscles involved in keeping my mouth closed, so I think it did help to train me to sleep with my mouth closed. I can now sleep OK without the strap, only having a few episodes of desert mouth waking, so I recommend it if you have the same issue.

The chin strap came and there's a THICK booklet with very little information in it, just TINY little text and a few illustrations repeated over and over in various languages.There's a slit in one side so you can wrap the adjustment strap and attach it to itself with Velcro once around it, but the other side is completely different, no slit, and all you do with that on is lay the end of the strap on the side of the mask itself.I find this tight, ill-fitting, itchy, and covers my ears (not over my ears) uncomfortably.Until you get the strap around the back just right, too, the mask will keep bouncing off your head as you're trying to put it on.I was hoping to SEE what was going on and how to fit this in a video. I couldn't. I guess Respironics with their poorly made $6,000+ finicky machines couldn't afford to do that, and never heard of YouTube.The other chin mask I got works about as well and required nothing but slipping it on. Nothing to figure out. No little poorly thought out book text to try to decipher.This MAY work for some once you get all the issues dealt with, but a customer should never be left blind to figure it out on their own like I was with this product.

Updated 10/1/13: I changed the stars to 3 because after wrapping it in self sticking sports wrap it mostly stays in place and doesn't slip around as much. I can't use the velcro strap in the back because it's really itchy and it doesn't help keep the strap in place at all. So I'll use it until I find something better.Updated again 10/18/13: I've been using it almost every night because I haven't found the time to find anything better. It's pretty much lost all its stretch and it's frayed, but it's still usable. I've discovered that if I make two ponytails in my hair, one right on top of the other, I can fit this band between the ponytails to keep it in place without having to use the self sticking sports wrap on it. All in all, I guess it was worth the $8 +$5 shipping, but only if it holds up a while longer. I'll leave the 3 stars.First of all, this strap came in two pieces and it should have been obvious how to put it together, but it wasn't and no instructions were included. One part was a thin strap with velcro that goes behind the head and the second part is the wide part that goes around the top of your head. There is a slit where the small strap is inserted on one side of the big strap but no slit on the other side, so I just stuck it together the best I could, although this made the whole assembly asymmetrical and lumpy. It's quite possible I put it together wrong, but there's no way to tell. I can't tell if the product is just poorly made or I got a defective one or if I put it together wrong.I spent way too much time trying to figure out a way to put it together to make it say on my head. I finally figured out a way to sort of keep it on my head, but it was pretty uncomfortable because the itchy velcro part kept slipping and settling on my ears. I finally cut up an old t-shirt and put the cloth between the strap and my ears to protect them which helped with the abrasive parts of the strap.But the big strap that goes over the top of the head to the chin slips all over the place, so I thought maybe I had it inside out, but it slipped either way. I woke up several times during the night with it all tangled up and I finally just took the thing off.I had been wearing self sticking sports wrap (coban) with one strip around my head, which while it worked very well, it was mega ugly and got bunched up too easily so I had to get a new strip every few days.I'm going to try it a few more times and see if I can get it configured so it doesn't eat my ears, slip all over the place and actually hold my jaw shut.If I get it worked out, I'll edit this post to let you all know.

This strap is much better quality and fit than other similar products. Very well made and will be my “go-to” chin strap in the future.