Not long ago, a friend came to ask Dr. Clove:
Doctor, doctor, there is an article saying that opening your mouth to breathe will make your baby ugly, really not!
This article mentioned that the bad habit of opening one’s mouth and breathing has [poisoned] many people: the once lovely little girl, Shota, has slowly [grown disabled].
Is it ugly to open your mouth and breathe?
Although there is controversy, it is really possible.
In general, we breathe through the nose. Some diseases can lead to long-term obstruction of the baby’s nose, such as turbinate hypertrophy, adenoid hypertrophy, tonsil hypertrophy, rhinitis, so the baby has developed the habit of opening his mouth to breathe. Moreover, some children even cure the problem of nose obstruction of ventilation, habits can’t be changed.
However, children and adolescents are in a period of rapid development of oral cavity and face. They open their mouths for a long time and breathe, and the upper and lower lips cannot be closed, resulting in relaxation of lip muscles. In severe cases, lip eversion will occur, and then they will become the doodle mouth in the picture.
In addition, open mouth breathing causes a large amount of air flow to pass through the mouth, and then we will unconsciously widen the channel of this air flow: the upper palate is raised and the tongue is lowered. Finally, there will be a long face in the picture, and well, there will be irregular teeth that cannot be seen in the picture.
Other effects of mouth opening breathing
For babies who have the habit of opening their mouths and breathing, their parents should not only worry about the decline of Yan’s value, but also pay attention to the following two issues.
1. Oral problems
Everyone has this kind of experience, if you open your mouth to breathe, it is easy to dry your mouth. This is because the saliva in your mouth evaporates faster.
Saliva can wash the surface of teeth, which is very important for oral cleaning. Moreover, it can also control the pH value of the oral cavity so that teeth are not easy to corrode.
However, mouth-opening breathing accelerates the evaporation of saliva in the oral cavity. As a result, the cleaning and protection effect of saliva on the oral cavity is weakened, and periodontal disease and tooth decay are more likely to occur.
In addition, mouth opening breathing may also lead to imbalance of oral flora and halitosis.
2. Affect the whole body development
Children who have the habit of opening their mouths and breathing often have low blood oxygen concentration. However, long-term low blood oxygen concentration has adverse effects on children’s overall development.
Due to the stenosis of the upper respiratory tract, children often snore when sleeping. This temporary lack of oxygen during sleep also affects children’s physical development.
Is the baby opening his mouth to breathe?
Dr. Clove introduced a simple method that parents can try.
Step 1: Tear the toilet paper into slender strips, and place them near the baby’s nostrils and mouth respectively after the baby is asleep. If the strip of paper attached to the mouth moves greatly, it is breathing with the mouth.
Step 2: When the baby is asleep, if he finds his mouth open, he can try to close it with his hand for a minute or two.
- If the baby starts to struggle, it means that it is very likely that he has upper respiratory tract obstruction and has to breathe through his mouth. If the baby has no special reaction and uses his nose instead, it means that opening his mouth to breathe may only be a habit.
The baby has the habit of opening his mouth and breathing. What should he do?
Through the above simple method, parents should not worry if they find that their children have the habit of opening their mouths and breathing.
First of all, you should take your child to pediatrics or otolaryngology (five official departments) to check whether there is any disease that causes your child’s nose to ventilate poorly. If so, you should cooperate with your doctor to cure these diseases.
Secondly, parents need to help their children correct the habit after opening their mouths to breathe. Children can be reminded verbally. If necessary, stomatologists will also wear some special correction tools for these children to force them to breathe through the nose and form correct breathing habits.
If there are irregular teeth, you can go to the orthodontic department and ask a doctor to correct them.
