Category: Blog

VANITY OR HEALTH? BOTH!

Vanity or Health? Both!

How mouth breathing affects dental health and facial  structures in children and in adults.

These pictures are quite dramatic, but this is what happens with mouth breathing children, and also with mouth breathing adults.

Have you ever wondered about why you look the way you look? I know I did.
Crocked teeth?  Crowded mouth?  Receding jaw line?  Pronounced ridge on the nose?I wish my childhood dentist knew more about mouth breathing and it’s detrimental effect.  Why? Educating me and my parents could have saved me from having teeth pulled because of overcrowded mouth, it could have saved me from having cavities and it would have probably changed (somewhat) the way my face look like today.  
As babies, we breathe through the nose, unless we are unhappy and crying needing food or needing to be changed. The more “unhappiness” occurs the more we start breathing through the mouth, gasping for air.  When we start moving more, rolling, crawling, eventually standing up and walking, gravity “hits”.  Against gravity the tongue drops to the bottom of the mouth and stays in there and creating an open mouth.  With the mouth open will have the tendency to breathe through the mouth. The more time we spend breathing through the mouth, the more “normal” it becomes, leading to the habit of consistent mouth breathing. 
In my previous blogs I have explained some of the effects of mouth breathing. One other ramification of mouth breathing is creating a receding jaw line. When the jaw line recedes the nose will “prop” forward and the ridge of the nose will become more pronounced. Head moves forward and the neck muscles shorten, pulling on all back muscles and putting the body into a forward headed and humped back posture. Neck and back pain could become a constant issue. 

Proper breathing is nose breathing, and without awareness to our breathing  patterns we cannot make a change.
Unless we teach our kids and ourselves to be aware and pay attention, these changes just going to get worse with time.
One more thing I’d like to emphasize about nose berating vs mouth breathing.  SLEEP!

The ability to breathe properly is vitally connected to deep and restorative sleep. We all know how we feel after a good night, uninterrupted sleep. We can take on the world!  We also know how we feel when we just toss and turn, unable to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Just a quick reminder of some of the effects of sleep deprivation that we might not think of:

– focus and attention diminish
– the ability to remain alert and attentive diminishes
– receding and maintaining information (learning) becomes more difficult
– mental, emotional and physical overload occur -decision making ability decline, because we have difficulty assessing and interpreting information
– planning becomes more difficult
– judgement is impaired
– inflammation increase in the body that will weaken the immune system (getting sick more often)
– increased systemic inflammation will create increase pain sensitivity (chronic pain)

Are any of these symptoms familiar?  
If your answer is yes, it’s time to learn how to nose breathe.  It’s not sexy, is not the newest “fitness trend”.
It is a FUNDAMENT SKILL that will affect the quality of your life for the rest of your life.  
Another skill that we don’t usually address in the gym, is learning where we hold our tongue.  As I mentioned at the beginning, constantly dropped tongue position will interfere with mouth and facial structure development. (next blog is on tongue) If you have children and grandchildren the best gift you can give them is teaching them about the importance of nose breathing. Cannot start early enough.
In case you need help to learn where to start and how to do it, you can always book a session (private or group) in the studio at your home or at the office.
If you know someone who could use help with breathing or other coaching, do not hesitate to forward my emails and contact info.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Haven’t visited the studio yet?

Well, we have to remedy that! Call 617-678-0724 for a tour.
Email ildikovarhelyi@me.com

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