Frequent use of oral breathing will harm many functions such as mouth, tongue, nasal cavity, teeth, cheeks and mandible, and may eventually lead to maxillofacial dysfunction.
First, the harm of oral breathing
1, adenoid face
Breathing with your mouth open will make you ugly, because when you breathe with your mouth open, your tongue will lean back and sink in order to open the oral passage. In the long run, the mandible (commonly known as chin), which should develop forward and downward, is prone to development restriction and form a backward face, which is often called adenoid face. In addition, when breathing with the mouth open, the airflow impacts the teeth for a long time, which will lead to irregular tooth arrangement, malocclusion, prominent upper teeth and so on.
2, affect intellectual development
Breathing through the mouth for a long time will lead to nasal congestion, cerebral ischemia and hypoxia, and memory loss, slow response, mental retardation and other phenomena will occur when there is insufficient oxygen supply in brain development.
3, cause disease
Breathing through the mouth for a long time may lead to nasal congestion and nasal mucosal swelling thickening. May cause rhinitis, nasal polyps and other diseases. Because you breathe through your mouth, you can't filter out bacteria or viruses. Bacteria or viruses can directly invade the respiratory tract through your mouth, causing respiratory diseases. Such as pharyngolaryngitis, tonsillitis and bronchitis.
Second, what is the cause of mouth breathing?
The main reasons for "oral breathing" are nasal ventilation disorder (chronic rhinitis), airway stenosis (adenoid tonsil hypertrophy), or bad habits (weakness of labial muscles and lingual muscles).
1, nasal problems: such as rhinitis, turbinate hypertrophy, deviated nasal septum.
2, tonsil hypertrophy: If repeated tonsillitis leads to tonsillar hyperplasia.
3. Adenoid hyperplasia and hypertrophy block the upper respiratory tract.
4, oral problems: such as uneven dentition, gum disease, resulting in the upper and lower lips can not completely close the balance game. There are also buckteeth, occlusal problems, short upper lip and so on. It will also make children unconsciously breathe with their mouths. In the long run, they will get into the habit of breathing through their mouths.
Third, how to distinguish oral breathing
Some children breathe with their "real" mouths, while others just breathe with their mouths open and their noses closed. Parents should prescribe the right medicine, so how can they distinguish and judge themselves at home?
1. When the baby sleeps at night, put a small piece of cotton wool outside the baby's nostril, observe the movement of the cotton wool, and judge whether the baby breathes through the nose or through the mouth.
The fog area under the nose is large → nasal ventilation.
The fog area under the mouth is large → oral ventilation.
2、? Put a small mirror under the baby's nose and mouth and observe where the fog has become more. If there is fog in the mouth, it is that the baby is breathing through the mouth.
Nose flutters more → nasal ventilation.
Flutter before the mouth is more severe → oral ventilation
Fourth, how to choose correction
1, receiving specialist treatment in otolaryngology.
More than 80% of children's oral breathing is caused by tonsil or adenoid hypertrophy, so it is necessary to determine whether children's oral breathing is caused by organic reasons such as nasal diseases, tonsil hypertrophy and adenoid hypertrophy under the examination of doctors. If there are the above reasons, you need to cooperate with the treatment under the advice of a doctor.
If necessary, remove the oversized tonsils and adenoids to restore the patency of the upper airway and ensure the basis of nasal breathing. The treatment of common rhinitis is often slow and time-consuming. Parents must be patient, follow the doctor's advice and take good care of their children.
2, habit correction treatment
After eliminating the causes and symptoms, if it is judged that the oral cavity is habitual and the nasal cavity is unobstructed, it is necessary to find a dentist and exercise the correct oral posture. The most important thing is the posture of the tongue. Under normal circumstances, it is generally recommended that the tongue be attached to the upper jaw. If the child has malocclusion, it is mainly to find an orthodontist at this time, and the effect of early orthodontic intervention is ideal after excluding other reasons. If it is too late and the patient is an adult, orthodontic treatment is needed.
5. Don't use sealant for children.
The sealing paste has no therapeutic effect. If mouth-opening breathing is caused by disease, obstruction of upper respiratory tract will often lead to insufficient ventilation and hypoxia. If you put on the sealing paste, it will only make the situation worse and aggravate the lack of oxygen.
In addition, some childish channels are unobstructed, and mouth-opening breathing is not caused by respiratory obstruction. For example, some children have weak lip muscles. When I was young, I often slept with a pacifier and bit something, which led to the habit of breathing with my mouth open. Some children are in their teens and breathe with their mouths open when they sleep. This is because although the adenoids and tonsils have shrunk, the previous adenoids and tonsil hypertrophy have caused mouth breathing and jaw deformation, and they have not returned to normal.
The younger the age of oral breathing correction, the better the effect, and the less the influence on the dentofacial morphology and facial development, especially before 12 years old. After timely correction, the child's face and mouth shape may recover on their own. Once oral breathing is found, it is necessary to intervene immediately to block the child's bad habits of oral breathing in time and prevent any subsequent adverse developmental effects.