Ever taken notice
if your child is breathing through their mouth or through their nose? Answering
a question so basic can make a world of a difference to your child’s development.
The cranio-facial
complex, which includes the cranial base, facial bones and your maxilla and
mandible (the jaws that hold your upper and lower teeth) are part of a dynamic
complex, with certain aspects continuing to develop until the age of eighteen.
The complex also works intimately with the upper airway which connects the nose
and mouth passages leading to your lungs.
So how
does your child breathing through their mouth possibly change their
development?
Abnormal forces
introduced to the normal developmental process of your cranio-facial complex can have a large influence. There has been vast amount of research regarding the
relationship between mouth breathing and development of the jaws. Research has
found the following developmental characteristics that may form in chronic
mouth breathers [1 2 3 4].
- Narrow and
constricted upper jaw formation
- Dental
malocclusion (crowding)
- Proclined/protruding
upper incisors
- Possibility of
formation of an open bite (lack of contact between upper and lower teeth)
- Inability to close
lips together
- Increase is face
height (longer faces)
- High angle of the mandible
(longer faces)
- Convex profile
(where lower jaw is significantly behind development of upper jaw)
Let’s
try an easy exercise for you to understand how the forces and muscles work to
lead to these abnormal craniofacial and dental developments.
Breathe
independently through your nose. You will notice for you to do this, you will
have your lips together, and your tongue will be resting on your palate. Nasal
breathing allows for optimal tongue posture, which will naturally expand and
allow the top jaw to grow to its full potential. Your muscles are working in
harmony and your lower jaw will expand as the top jaw expands.
Now change your
breathing to mouth breathing. In order for this to happen, notice where your
tongue is sitting now? It is no longer sitting on the roof of your mouth, it
has dropped, and is no longer exerting the expansive force on your top jaw. The
lack of the force from the tongue in a growing individual will result in development of a narrow upper jaw and a high
and constricted palate. The lower jaw will no longer rotate in the right
direction and will not expand to its full
potential due to the deficient upper jaw. All of a sudden, you are creating a
skeletal and muscular misbalance.
Something so simple can make such a difference.
So why
may your child be breathing through their mouth?
A study conducted
in Brazil, and published in The Journal of Paediatrics5 found the most common
reasons why children may favour breathing through their mouth. The most common
being allergic rhinitis, followed by enlarged adenoids, enlarged tonsils, and
finally obstructive deviation of the nasal septum.
All these causes
result in the body favouring mouth breathing due to some form of obstruction in
the upper airway tract.
How do
you know if your child is a chronic mouth breather?
There are obvious
signs of mouth breathing if they are posturing their mouth open for long
periods of time, but there can be some less obvious signs that your child may
be a mouth breather. These include:
- Sleeping with
their mouth open
- Snoring or
grinding whilst sleeping
- Drooling on the
pillow
- Nocturnal sleep
problems or agitated sleep
- Nasal
obstruction/difficulty breathing through their nose
- Irritability
during the day
How can
we help?
Our team at
Grandstand Dental Care take a very comprehensive and holistic approach to our
patient’s wellbeing and health. We are
continuously working with other health professionals such as General
practitioners, Ear nose and throat surgeons, respiratory physicians and
paediatric clinicians to provide a team-approach for our patients.
Your child’s
general and dental development is important to us. Regular visits with your
children will ensure we can monitor their development, and address any concerns
we may have. If you would like any further advice regarding your child’s
airway, mouth breathing tendency and their development, we welcome you to come
see our team!
1. Jefferson Y
(2010), Mouth breathing: adverse effects on facial growth, health, academics,
and behavior, Journal of Academy of
General Dentistry, 58: 79 – 80
2. Harari D1,
Redlich M, Miri S, Hamud T, Gross M (2010), The effect of mouth breathing
versus nasal breathing on dentofacial and craniofacial development in
orthodontic patients, Laryngoscope, 120: 2089-93
3. Bahija Basheer,
K Sundeep Hegde, Sham S Bhat, Dilshad Umar, and Kusai Baroudi (2014),
Influence of Mouth
Breathing on the Dentofacial Growth of Children: A Cephalometric Study,
International Journal of Oral Health, 6: 50-55
4. Moffatt, JB
(1963) – Habits and their relation to malocclusion, Australian Dental Journal,
142 – 149
5. Abreu RR, Rocha
RL, Lamounier JA, Guerra AF (2008), Etiology, clinical manifestations and
concurrent findings in mouth-breathing children, Journal of Paediatrics, 84:
529-35
