This is a collaborative post: If you or your partner snores or mouth breathes at night, you might consider it a bit inconvenient. Unfortunately, not many people know that not breathing through your nose while sleeping can lead to serious health risks. In this article, you can learn more about issues caused by mouth breathing, and how to prevent them.
What Causes Mouth Breathing?
There are various things that can cause mouth breathing, for example:
- partially or fully blocked nasal passages. This problem usually appears if you have a deviated nasal septum, enlarged tonsils, or nasal polyps.
- blocked nose. If you have a cold, sinus problems, asthma, or allergies, you might notice that you breathe through your mouth.
- sleep apnea. The mouth breathing can appear if you have a sleep disorder connected to the blockage of your upper airway.
How You Can Solve the Mouth Breathing Problem?
Try Mewing
Mewing is a technique that makes you focus on the way your tongue is positioned in your mouth. Because it focuses on breathing as well, it can help you change your habit of mouth breathing to nose breathing. If you don’t know how to start mewing, try Mewing.coach.
Consult a Specialist
The first thing you should do to reduce the health risks of mouth breathing is contacting a specialist. Talk to a laryngologist, a sinus expert, and/or allergy specialist to discover what is the cause of the mouth breathing. When you know the source of the problem, you might be able to eliminate it, whether through nasal obstruction correction, reducing exposure to allergens, or changing your lifestyle.
What Problems Can Mouth Breathing Cause?
The most common issues caused by mouth breathing are connected with the state of your oral health. Many people suffer from sore throats. Crowded teeth and gum disease are other problems connected to mouth breathing.
Because you don’t breathe properly during sleep, you can experience morning headaches and chronic fatigue. Additionally, you can experience some digestive issues.
You can expect cracked lips, as your breath can make them dry. While it might seem like only an esthetic problem, it is not. If your throat and/or lips are dry for a long time, the area gets inflamed. Inflammation can lead to oral diseases, and as studies show (source), bad state of your oral health can increase the risk of problems with the heart. Sleep apnea is the other thing that can increase the risk of heart diseases.
In addition, mouth breathing can change the way your face looks. If you breathe through the mouth often, you can influence the muscles of your face. In effect, your face can get more narrow, and you may notice narrower dental arches. The risk of mouth breathing influencing face shape is high among children. However, it can also influence the face lines of adults.