What is a mouth-breather face?
We are all born nasal breathers, but something along the way makes us use our emergency breathing system (our mouth). For whatever reason, we never correct the behavior to return to regular “nasal breathing programming.” As time goes on, more and more people want to avoid a mouth breather face. Good news, you can!
Mouth breathing face is a term that is used to describe the craniofacial (the bones of the skull and face) changes that mouth breathing causes. When someone is mouth breathing, there is a change to the position of the lower jaw and tongue position which leads to an elongated face and narrow upper palate.
When working with clients and I know that someone has been a chronic mouth breather, then there are certain characteristics that I expect to see in someone with mouth breathing face.
I expect that I might see some of the following:
- A flatter nose
- Short upper lip
- Recessed chin
- Forward head posture
- Droopy eyes and mouth
- Dimpled chin
- Open, saggy dry lips
- Dark circles under the eyes
- Narrow nostrils
- Tooth crowding
- Dental concerns such as decay and gum disease
- Gummy smile
How to fix a mouth-breathing face?
The easiest way to fix a mouth-breathing face is to prevent it from ever happening. But first, so many people wonder if the meaning of mouth breathing is as obvious as it sounds. Yes, yes, it is. However, what’s not quite so obvious is whether you are or aren’t a mouth breather. And some of you are in straight-up denial!
Tune in and pay some attention to your breathing habits. Are your lips slightly parted? Are your lips dry and chapped? Do you sigh a lot and have to take deep breaths to feel like you’re getting adequate air? Odds are you are mouth breathing!
So back to how to fix a mouth-breathing face. The sooner, the better. Once a child reaches the age of 10-12, over 90% of the facial development has occurred, so this is why it’s paramount to nip this habit in the bud.
Once the face is developed, it is much harder to make changes. You can look at my facial structure and see that I, too, have a mouth-breathing face. I was the world’s biggest mouth breather, and gravity just pulled my face down as it grew since my mouth was open. I have a steep jaw angle and a high narrow palate.
One of the things that we see in someone with a mouth-breathing face is dental crowding. Nasal breathing puts an expansive force on the face so the bones will grow forward instead of down. When the bones of the face don’t grow forward enough, insufficient craniofacial development occurs. This means that the bones of the face didn’t reach optimum development, and the teeth can’t erupt nicely if the foundation is too small.
I like using the stadium concept I learned from Dr. Steven Lin in the Dental Diet. “If your stadium doesn’t get big enough, there is no way you can put the seats in a straight row.” The same goes for your teeth. I don’t see dental crowding as a heritable trait; I see it as a “myofunctional issue.” When the mouth is open, the tongue is low, and mouth breathing occurs, we will see dental crowding and mouth breather faces.
Benefits of breathing through your nose
The benefits of nasal breathing are long and plentiful. Nature designed you to breathe through your nose! When you inhale and exhale through your mouth, you choose a very shallow form of breathing and get very little help from your diaphragm muscle. This shallow breathing means that you only exchange the air in the upper lobes of the lungs, which results in a chronic sympathetic (fight or flight) response. The benefit of nasal breathing will be a parasympathetic (rest and digest) response to help balance your sympathetic responses.
When you breathe through your nose, the nasal structure helps slow down the airflow into the sinuses, warms and humidifies the air, captures heat and moisture from the breath, and adds the bactericidal/antiviral benefits of nitric oxide, which helps increase the uptake of oxygen into the lungs and distribute more oxygen throughout the body.
Another benefit of nasal breathing is that the nose will regulate itself and stay open if you use it! The more you breathe through your nose, the more it will open up. The more you breathe through the mouth, the more the nose closes up and becomes stuffier. (I call this the “Vicious Cycle of Mouth Breathing.”)
You also stay more hydrated when you breathe through your nose, which is great when you’re trying to keep your skin looking great and supple! Mouth breathers lose 42% more water because the nose recaptures moisture on the exhale.
What about when you have sleep apnea? Nasal breathing also helps benefit your sleep apnea treatment as well. When you’re a mouth breather, and you’ve lost 42% more water than your nasal breathing counterpart, you also have dry and sticky tissue in the upper airway. What do you think happens when the airway collapses during a sleep apnea episode? The tissue is tacky and sticky; it takes much more pressure to force open that sticky airway.
Do you or someone you love suffer from anxiety or depression? One of the benefits of nasal breathing is the improvement in mental health. Slow breathing is essential for good mental health, and when you are breathing through your nose, your brain receives the message of calmness. You can influence your mental state by your breathing. Mouth breathing is fast, stressed breathing. Nasal breathing is slow, relaxed breathing.
People who use their noses tend to be less anxious, less depressed, and calmer people.
And lastly, do you suffer from digestive issues? Many of our clients are shocked to learn about how digestion and orofacial myofunctional disorders are connected. Digestive issues happen for a variety of reasons. First, when you are mouth breathing, the tongue is low and not in the correct position, which will stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve does a lot of magical things; amongst them is the regulation of breathing, digestion, anxiety, and depression. Second, when someone is mouth breathing, the body experiences chronic fight or flight (sympathetic response). However, digestion occurs in parasympathetic mode (rest and digest). Your body doesn’t care what’s happening to your burrito when you’re running from a wooly mammoth.
What to do if you have a mouth-breather face?
The biggest question becomes, “How to stop mouth breathing”? This is undoubtedly a question that we want to answer sooner rather than later! The longer that someone breathes through the mouth, the more the whole body is affected.
Not only does mouth breathing affect your teeth, gum tissue, and periodontal health, but it also affects your digestion, stress level, and mental health too!
If you have a mouth breather face and wonder how to stop mouth breathing, the first step is to find a reputable orofacial myofunctional therapist you trust and have an exam. Here at Impact Myofunctional Therapy, we will have you do some breathing demonstrations so that we can determine if you can physically nasally breathe.
If you have swollen nasal turbinates, a deviated nasal septum, or any other “nasal plumbing issue,” we will help you determine the next steps. This might be a visit to your favorite ENT or allergist to assist us with getting “patent nasal passages.” Patent (unobstructed) nasal passages are a must when trying to stop mouth breathing because changing the breathing patterns will be impossible without a physical barrier.
Once we rule out any other concerns, then it is important to focus on the behaviors that are causing you to mouth breathe. This will mean having to be more mindful of your breathing and not introducing anything into your life that can be causing nasal congestion, ultimately leading to more mouth breathing.