Mouth Breathing: Should I be Worried?

If you look at the above picture and find it familiar when looking at yourself in the mirror or when gazing at your family or friends, then perhaps you should wonder if persistent mouth-breathing has eventually led to the change in one’s facial structure and appearance!

Many patients have been coming to see us with mouth-breathing, often with blocked nose, at our ENT clinics in Singapore, including both children and adults. When you have been breathing through your mouth for a long time, you often end up assuming (wrongly) that this is “normal” breathing but in fact, it is NOT normal to breathe through your mouth all the time. More worryingly, persistent breathing through your mouth, especially at a young age in children with mouth-breathing problems, can lead to a permanent and irreversible change in their facial bone structure so that they may tend to have an overly long face, small underdeveloped jaw, pouty “fish-lips”, bad posture with head sticking forward, just like in the picture above!

Mouth-breathing certainly is abnormal as it is the nose that is designed for airflow in and out of your body during breathing at rest and when asleep. Breathing through your mouth may occur during more vigorous exercise but much of the airflow will take place through your nasal passages. The nose has specially designed lining/mucosa to coat the insides of your nasal passages with a protective mucus barrier to help fight infection and filter out unwanted irritants with its hairs. Breathing through your mouth will lead to an uncomfortable dry mouth, bad breath and poor dental hygiene. Dentists hate seeing people breathing through their mouths for this very reason as it leads to poorer circulation of saliva to protect your teeth and gums.

Mouth-breathing when asleep is also a problem because it affects the overall quality of sleep and may cause the sufferer to wake up repeatedly, either partially or completely, leading to a disrupted and noisy sleep pattern. Abnormal mouth-breathing during sleep may be due to underlying obstructive sleep apnea where there is recurrent airway collapse leading to reduced oxygen airflow to your vital organs including the brain and heart. This is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias), poor control of blood sugar, sudden death and so on.

So why would someone suffer from persistent mouth-breathing? This usually indicates some form of airway obstruction, most commonly the nose. If you are unable to breathe through your nose because it feels blocked, this is abnormal and you should get it checked out soon. If your body cannot get adequate air into your nose, then it will automatically turn to the second best option of opening your mouth to maintain some airflow. Common ENT reasons for your nose and/or throat to feel blocked include:

• Deviated nasal septum (crooked nasal bones)
• Enlarged turbinates (soft tissue swelling inside the nose)
• Nasal allergies (allergic rhinitis)
• Enlarged adenoids (chunky lymph gland tissue which grows at the back of your nose)
• Enlarged tonsils (which can be large enough to cause overcrowding at the back of your throat)
• Floppy soft palate and uvula (the dangly midline structure you see in the mirror when you look into your mouth)

Obviously, we should always bear in mind that rarer causes such as tumours in the nose, throat and airway may also be a possible cause of airway obstruction, breathing difficulties and persistent mouth-breathing.

So there are many ENT reasons for someone to persistently have to breathe through their mouth rather than their nose! The problem is that sometimes, if this goes on for too long, it can become a habit which may be difficult to totally correct even after the cause for the blocked nose has already been treated well. Therefore, the earlier mouth-breathing, blocked nose and airway obstruction is treated by your top ENT specialist in Singapore, the better it is for the poor sufferer!

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