OSA - Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Why any orthodontic treatment should start with Nose Breathing
I would argue that whomever made us humans, Mother Nature, God, Allah, Buddha or whoever you may think, they had a plan. We have yet to identify parts that are pointless and the Nose is no exception. Going through the literature on the subject from 1875 "Shut your mouth and save your life" by George Catlin to 2021 "JAWS" by Sandra Khan I can't shake the feeling that we, in the orthodontic business, have to up our game in this regard.
In this video it is depicted how the tongue moves low and back in an Obstructive Sleep Apnea. In orthodontics we also treat this effect when we treat the patients that have their lower jaw positioned towards the back.
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In orthodontics we have a myriad of clinical choices on how to fix this facial imbalance but very few of them actually consider breathing and OSA potential throughout patients's lifetime. Teeth extraction and distalization being the two major choices that have the highest chance to increase OSA.
What are the differences between Nose Breathing and Mouth Breathing?
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But I'm a mouth breather, there is no way for me to breathe through the nose...
I would argue it's possible because of a personal experience that I will share with you here.
For over 20 years I have been breathing through my mouth at night and every time I spoke with specialised doctors they've always said that it's not bad enough to operate and I should try nose drops at night. Knowing that nothing is free and medicating, especially long term, has side effects I never actually pursued the treatment. I was at peace with my situation.
In the winter of 2020 I woke up one morning and realised that my mouth was not dry and that I actually have been breathing through my nose the whole night. I also realised that this has been happening for a while and has been the same since, except when I actually had colds or allergic reactions. This made me very happy but it also made me question what has changed? How come after 20 years of oral breathing at night now I am a nasal breather at night? It took me a while but in the Summer of 2021 I finally realised what had happened: COVID 19 Happened! No, not getting sick with Covid 19 but going back to work after the lockdown in May 2020.
I knew two things:
1. Saliva was the known transmission medium for the virus
2. Breathing through the mouth had a higher chance of getting the disease than breathing through the nose
Do I want to reduce the chance of getting my loved ones sick? Then I need to ‘Shut my mouth to save their lives.”
Behind a FFP3 Mask working with saliva I instinctively shut my mouth for 6h every day. Was hard, sometimes I had the feeling of drowning, other times I felt like falling into an unnatural sleep but fear is a powerful motivator.
How can I fix this?
If you think this could be important to you or to your child you can try the hard way like in my story or you can do it in a more manageable manner with a protocol I posted on X here.