Does breathing through the mouth really ruin your appearance?

We need to breathe every moment, but have you ever paid attention to the way we breathe? Except for special cases of nasal congestion due to rhinitis or cold, most people breathe through their noses during the day; but do you know how you breathe when you sleep? It is said that breathing through the mouth for a long time will lead to protruding teeth, protruding lips and other facial features, making people ugly. Is this true?

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01

Mouth breathing is an unusual way of breathing

Under normal circumstances, people usually breathe through their noses. The nasal hair and nasal mucosa can clean and moisten the inhaled air, and also warm it. It can be said that the nose is the first line of defense for the human body. When people have a cold, a stuffy nose, or sinusitis, they will breathe through their mouths.

So what kind of breathing method do we use when we sleep? Most people breathe through their noses when they sleep. If you snore at night or feel a particularly dry mouth when you wake up in the morning, then you are probably breathing through your mouth when you sleep at night.

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Common reasons why we breathe through our mouths during sleep include:

1. Obesity: Fat tissue accumulates in the pharynx of obese people, causing nasal obstruction, making it easier for them to breathe through their mouths during sleep;

2. Patients with respiratory diseases: People with colds, sinusitis, deviated nasal septum, enlarged inferior turbinate, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, and asthma are also prone to breathing through their mouths when sleeping at night.

02

Long-term mouth breathing

It really affects your appearance.

Long-term mouth breathing and blocked nose can easily cause hypoxia in the head, resulting in symptoms such as mental fatigue, headache, dizziness, memory loss, slow reaction, etc. Of course, if we breathe through the mouth for a short time, such as when running to increase lung ventilation, we will also use the mouth to temporarily help breathe, which generally does not cause changes in facial appearance. However, breathing through the mouth cannot filter the air and heat it, which can easily cause stomach pain.

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In addition to the impact on health, if you breathe through your mouth for a long time, your appearance will indeed change greatly. In medicine, there is a kind of face called "adenoid face", which refers to the facial features of patients with enlarged adenoids, such as elongated maxilla, high arched hard palate, protruding upper incisors, and thick lips due to poor ventilation in the nasopharynx and long-term mouth breathing. People with this disease lack facial expression, dull face, lack of muscle movement, and look a bit "dull". This kind of "destruction" of appearance will also have an impact on adults whose facial features have basically been fixed, but relatively speaking, the impact on infants and teenagers will be greater.

03

How your child breathes while sleeping

Worthy of parents' attention

Like adults, infants, young children and adolescents generally breathe through their noses. If you find that your child often breathes through his mouth during sleep, you need to pay attention to the following problems:

1. Cold, stuffy nose, stuffy nose

Parents should add or remove clothes for their children according to the weather. If their children have a runny nose or nasal congestion, they should seek medical attention in time to avoid delaying the condition.

2. Allergies

Some children have sensitive constitutions and are prone to allergic rhinitis, which causes nasal congestion. Parents should pay attention to keeping the home environment clean, try to avoid spraying perfume at home, raising plants with pollen, raising cats, dogs, birds, and smoking, and try not to lay blankets at home or let children wear plush clothes and down jackets to reduce irritation to the delicate nasal cavity.

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3. Nasal cavity is blocked by secretions

For babies, they cannot clean their nasal secretions by themselves. If the nasal cavity is not cleaned in time, the secretions will dry up in the nasal cavity, which will easily cause nasal obstruction and difficulty breathing. In this case, parents can use baby saline spray or olive oil to soften the dry secretions in the baby's nasal cavity, and then use a baby nasal aspirator to suck them out. Try not to use cotton swabs to clean the nostrils, as it is easy to poke the nasal cavity if you are not careful.

4. Too big tongue

If the child's tongue is too large, the root of the tongue will fall back when sleeping, which can easily block the respiratory tract and make breathing difficult. If this happens, you should consult the dentistry department for further treatment.

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5. Obesity

Many parents like chubby babies, but if they are not fed properly, they will become too fat, which can also make their necks thick and short, and cause fat to accumulate in their throats, which can affect nasal ventilation and cause them to need to open their mouths to breathe. If this is the case, parents should adjust their children's diet, make the nutrition combination reasonable, avoid eating too much, and increase their exercise appropriately.

6. Deviated nasal septum, enlarged tonsils, and enlarged adenoids

These conditions can also lead to mouth breathing during sleep, and in many cases, snoring. If you hear your child snoring at night, you should take him to the ENT department of the hospital for examination in time to find out the cause as soon as possible and treat it early to avoid affecting the normal development of the body.

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Long-term nasal congestion can easily cause brain hypoxia and growth hormone secretion disorders, affecting children's height development, reducing resistance, and even affecting the normal development of intelligence. Long-term mouth breathing can cause bacteria and dust to enter the mouth, throat, and respiratory tract without being filtered, causing respiratory diseases and easily causing "adenoid facies", which ruins the appearance of children.

Therefore, once parents find that their children breathe through their mouths for a long time, they should promptly take them to a professional ENT department for diagnosis and treatment; if they find that their children have abnormal facial features, they should also promptly go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment to ensure their children's healthy growth.

Author: Zhang Wenjuan, deputy chief physician of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Chenzhou Fourth People's Hospital, Hunan Province

Review | Zhang Hua, Chief Physician, Beijing Hepingli Hospital

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