Mouth Breathing

Mouth Breathing: Chronic mouth breathing is one of the primary causes of a narrow jaw and high palate in children. When a child breathes through their mouth, the tongue fails to rest on the roof of the mouth, preventing proper palatal and jaw development. This leads to a constricted upper jaw and overcrowded teeth.

Mouth Breathing in Children

Mouth breathing in children is more than just a bad habit—it can lead to significant developmental, health, and behavioral problems if left unaddressed. While occasional mouth breathing, such as during a cold, is common, habitual mouth breathing can cause long-term consequences. Let’s take a closer look at how mouth breathing can impact children:

Behavioral and Cognitive Effects

Daytime Fatigue and Poor Concentration: The disrupted sleep caused by mouth breathing, especially when linked to sleep apnea, can lead to chronic daytime fatigue. This affects a child's ability to concentrate at school, participate in physical activities, and regulate emotions.
Irritability and Mood Swings: Chronic lack of sleep due to mouth breathing can make children more irritable, moody, and prone to emotional outbursts, impacting their behavior both at home and at school.

Speech and Language Delays

Impaired Articulation and Pronunciation: Mouth breathing can affect speech development, as it may cause the child to adopt improper tongue posture. This can lead to issues with speech clarity, pronunciation, and articulation. In some cases, this may result in delays in language development.
Difficulty with Swallowing: Mouth breathers often develop improper swallowing patterns, which can affect how they eat and drink. These patterns may lead to difficulties with chewing, swallowing, and even more advanced issues with speech and oral motor skills.

Sleep Problems

Snoring and Sleep Apnea: Children who breathe through their mouth at night are more likely to snore and may even develop obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This condition causes interruptions in breathing during sleep, leading to restless nights and reduced sleep quality. As a result, children with OSA may experience daytime fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating at school.
Restless Sleep: Mouth breathing can interfere with deep, restful sleep by causing frequent waking or difficulty achieving the REM stage of sleep, resulting in poor sleep quality, daytime tiredness and in some cases bed wetting.

Impaired Facial and Jaw Development

Narrow Palate and Crowded Teeth: Mouth breathing often leads to an underdeveloped upper jaw, resulting in a narrow palate and crowded teeth. Over time, this can cause misalignment, necessitating orthodontic treatment such as braces or other corrective procedures.
Receding Chin and Facial Changes: Habitual mouth breathing can also result in a “long face” appearance, where the lower jaw becomes recessed. This misalignment can affect the child’s facial profile, making it more pronounced and asymmetrical.
Altered Lip Development: The habit of breathing through the mouth prevents the lips from naturally closing, which can contribute to longer-term changes in lip development and may lead to difficulty closing the mouth properly.

Poor Posture

Forward Head Posture: When a child habitually breathes through their mouth, they often adopt a forward head posture to keep the airway open. This can lead to an imbalance in the muscles of the neck and shoulders, causing discomfort and a misalignment of the spine, which can affect overall posture and lead to chronic muscle strain.
Shoulder and Neck Tension: The improper posture associated with mouth breathing can also cause muscle tension in the neck and shoulders. Over time, this can result in discomfort, pain, and even headaches.

Increased Risk of Respiratory Infections

Oral Health Issues

Take Action for Your Child's Health

If your child struggles with mouth breathing, it’s important to seek professional help as early as possible. With the right intervention, such as Oral Myofunctional Therapy, it’s possible to correct these habits and promote better health, development, and comfort.

Don’t wait—early intervention is key to preventing long-term issues. Contact us today to learn more about how OMT can help your child develop healthy breathing habits and enjoy a lifetime of good oral health.

Mouth Breathing and Teeth Grinding: Understanding the Connection and How Oral Myofunctional Therapy Can Help

What is Teeth Grinding? Teeth Grinding refers to the habitual grinding or clenching of teeth, often during sleep but sometimes also while awake. While it can occur for various reasons, including stress, anxiety, and misalignment of teeth, mouth breathing has been shown to play a significant role in the development of teeth grinding, especially in children.

How Mouth Breathing Contributes to Teeth Grinding

Increased Muscle Tension: Mouth breathing leads to an imbalance in the muscles of the face and jaw. When breathing through the mouth, the muscles in the jaw and face tend to tense up, especially during sleep. This muscle tension can trigger teeth grinding, as the body responds to stress or discomfort by grinding the teeth.

Jaw Misalignment: Habitual mouth breathing can lead to or exacerbate misalignment of the jaw, as it alters normal facial development and dental alignment. Misaligned teeth and jaws create an improper bite, which can cause the teeth to grind against each other involuntarily. Teeth Grinding often develops as the body attempts to adjust to this misalignment.

Mouth Dryness: Mouth breathing leads to a dry mouth, which can increase the likelihood of tooth sensitivity and discomfort. This discomfort may cause individuals to grind their teeth at night as a reaction to the sensation. A dry mouth can also lead to gum irritation, increasing the urge to grind or clench the teeth to relieve discomfort.
Interrupted Sleep: Mouth breathing is often linked to sleep disturbances, such as snoring or sleep apnea. These disturbances can cause the body to react by grinding the teeth in an attempt to regain comfort and proper airways during sleep. Teeth Grinding can become a side effect of chronic sleep disruptions associated with mouth breathing.

How Oral Myofunctional Therapy Can Help with Teeth Grinding

Oral Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) focuses on correcting the underlying causes of mouth breathing and improving overall oral function. By addressing the root issues associated with teeth grinding, OMT can help reduce or eliminate teeth grinding and clenching. Here’s how OMT can support both children struggling with teeth grinding related to mouth breathing:

Promoting Nasal Breathing

One of the primary goals of OMT is to encourage proper nasal breathing. OMT works by retraining the muscles of the face, mouth, and tongue, encouraging them to breathe through the nose rather than the mouth. Nasal breathing helps regulate airflow, promotes better oxygen intake, and reduces the need for the jaw muscles to tense up, thereby minimizing the risk of teeth grinding.

Relaxing Jaw Muscles

By improving tongue posture, breathing patterns, and oral habits, OMT helps reduce the muscle tension that contributes to teeth grinding. The therapy involves exercises that relax the muscles of the jaw and face, reducing the involuntary clenching and grinding that typically occur during sleep.

Supporting Proper Facial and Jaw Development

Habitual mouth breathing can negatively affect the growth of the facial bones and jaw. Through targeted therapy, OMT helps guide the muscles to function in a way that supports proper facial and jaw alignment. This alignment prevents the misocclusions (improper bite) that can trigger teeth grinding.

Reducing Sleep Disturbances

Since mouth breathing is often linked to sleep disturbances like snoring and sleep apnea, OMT can help address these underlying issues. By retraining the body to breathe through the nose, OMT reduces the likelihood of sleep disruptions that may contribute to teeth grinding. Improved sleep quality leads to fewer episodes of teeth grinding and clenching.

The Benefits of Early Intervention

For children, early intervention is particularly important. Addressing mouth breathing and teeth grinding during the early years helps prevent long-term dental, facial, and health issues. By guiding children to adopt proper oral habits and nasal breathing patterns early on, OMT can reduce the risk of developing chronic teeth grinding and its associated complications, such as tooth damage, jaw pain, and misaligned teeth.

Take Action Today

If you or your child is struggling with mouth breathing or teeth grinding, it’s essential to seek help as soon as possible. Oral Myofunctional Therapy offers a non-invasive, holistic approach to addressing these issues, improving both oral health and overall well-being.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation and learn more about how OMT can help reduce mouth breathing and teeth grinding, leading to a healthier, more comfortable life.