In through the nose, out through the mouth. While most people breathe automatically through their nose when resting, there are those of us who breathe through our mouths instead (we all know one officer mouth breather).
Many of us will have no choice but to breathe through our mouths when facing nasal congestion, like allergies or colds. Well, sorry to break it to you all, but it turns out mouth breathing could actually affect the shape of your face.
In a stitched TikTok video, social media famous expert Dr Karan Raj says he’s always wondered if breathing through your mouth actually affects your face.
“It turns out that breathing through your mouth causes a wild series of butterfly effects,” he explains.
“More mouth breathing means the muscles of the cheek have to work harder and these cheek muscles work harder they put more pressure on the upper and lower jaws.”
Eventually this can narrow the shape of the face and the dental arches, the health expert explains. A narrower face and dental arches mean there’s less room in the mouth for the tongue, which drops to the floor from its natural resisting position of the roof of your mouth.
“Because the tongue is now on the floor of the mouth it then hinders the mid-face development so some children who chronic mouth breathers can end up with long narrower faces with less prominent jaws,” Raj adds. Terrifying stuff!
Mouth breathing in general isn’t great and can lead to other problems such as:
- bad breath
- periodontal disease, like gingivitis and tooth cavities
- throat and ear infections
It can also lead to low oxygen concentration in the blood which is linked to high blood pressure and heart failure. So, if you’ve ever wanted to tell the colleague who’s loudly breathing through their mouth to stop, you should probably send them this article.