The mouth taping trend is aptly named. It's the practice of taping your mouth shut while you sleep to improve your slumber. TikTok influencers continue to claim it quiets snoring and prevents morning dry mouth. The hashtag #mouthtaping has more than 51.7 million views on TikTok.
Mouth taping is an increasingly popular home treatment used to encourage nose breathing during sleep. People who tape their mouths closed at night may do so to address issues ranging from snoring to bad breath.
A few extremely limited studies have shown that mouth taping can help reduce snoring and improve mild sleep apnea. But taping can be extreme. Taping that prevents movement limits your ability to breathe. And it can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions as well.
Mouth taping has benefits for both your oral health and overall health. Breathing through your nose aids in filtering out dust and harmful allergens, whereas mouth breathing can give you a dry mouth which can lead to bad breath and tooth decay.
While mouth taping is generally safe, it is important to only do so under the guidance of a sleep specialist or dentist that is board-certified in dental sleep medicine. They can provide you with the proper tape and instructions for using the tape safely and effectively.
“It is unlikely a short course of mouth taping will change the bone structure of a person's jawline,” Dr. Samuel Lin, a plastic surgeon and Harvard Medical School associate professor of surgery, told HuffPost.
And it's not a quick fix either. "It's not like you use it one day and get the benefits. Most people mention that they use it four to six weeks before you can start training your body to breathe through the nose without the tape," says Dasgupta.
Try using a wedge-shaped pillow to elevate your head and upper torso while you sleep. Aim for an elevation of 30 to 60 degrees. This should help to keep your mouth closed, making you breathe through your nose. Sleeping with your head elevated can also help to reduce snoring and improve sleep apnea.
People may sleep with their mouths open because it is a habit, but mouth breathing at night may also be a sign that something is interfering with normal breathing, particularly if it is accompanied by snoring. Nasal congestion or blockage is a common cause of mouth breathing.
Oral breathing is a common phenomenon of patients with OSA patients during sleep, happening more frequently right before and after events of apnea and hypopnea. An event of apnea or hypopnea is usually accompanied by a deep and long oral breathe, most likely because the patient tries to make up for oxygen depletion.
Mouth breathing is a habit people develop when they can't breathe through their nose. Mouth breathing may solve the immediate and essential problem of getting enough air. But mouth breathing can become a hard-to-break habit that can cause sleep disorders, dental problems and facial structure differences.
Face taping, a beauty hack that's trending on TikTok, claims to get rid of wrinkles and smooth out fine lines. Experts say that face taping does not get rid of wrinkles and fine lines, but it can be a temporary way to slow the rate at which wrinkles form.
If you have sleep apnea, you're probably a CPAP user, and mouth taping is in no way healthy for you. Instead, continue your positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy. Using your prescribed APAP, BiPAP, or CPAP machine every night and while napping is the best thing you can do to treat your sleep disorder.
There have been small studies linking mouth taping with modest improvements in snoring and sleep apnea, but no large-scale trial has been able to prove its benefits, for which reason it is not universally recommended.
We're sorry to break it to you but sleeping with your mouth open is actually harmful to your health. It prevents the body's natural absorption of oxygen to the brain and muscles (The Breathe Institute), leading to a whole host of issues.
Mouth Breathing
Increased total facial height: People who breathe with their mouths have a higher facial height, which is the distance from the glabella (midpoint between the brows) and the menton (lowest part of the chin). In addition, the lower anterior facial height—the space between the nose and menton—is longer.
Blocked nasal passages, enlarged tonsils, or weak palatal tissue may also cause close-mouthed snoring. Essentially, a nasal snorer has a slight chance of snoring with the mouth closed if his nasal passages get severely blocked.
Mouth breathing is surprisingly more common than you think. In a Sleep Review study, 61% of adults surveyed identified themselves as a mouth breather. That's an awful lot of adults struggling to get a breath through their nose.
However, some of the symptoms that relate to mouth breathing can include: Snoring. A dry mouth. Bad breath (halitosis)
As an adult, the growth and development has already happened but it's not too late–there are MANY health benefits to breathing through your nose instead of your mouth at any age! Nasal breathing with a proper lip seal are two of the goals of myofunctional therapy.
Researchers conclude that mouth breathing might lead to changes in the posture of the head and neck, and that chronic mouth breathing can result in an “adenoid face.” This type of facial structure involves a narrow upper dental arch, changes in incisors, an imperfect lip seal, and an increased facial height.
Another viral trend would have you believing that mouth taping helps with snoring, bad breath and allergies. But the lack of scientific evidence suggests otherwise.