Why is mouth breathing harmful?
The adaptation from nasal to mouth breathing allows a number of unhealthy things to happen. These changes can include chronic middle ear infections, sinusitis, upper airway infections and sleep disturbances such as snoring. In additions, mouth breathing is often associated with a decrease in oxygen intake into the lungs which can lead to a lack of energy— mouth-breathing children may fatigue easily during exercise. Mouth breathing can particularly affect the growing face. The alterations will occur in the muscles associated with the face, jaws, tongue and neck. The abnormal pull of these muscle groups on bones of the face and jaws slowly deforms these bones, eventually causing the jaws and teeth to be mismatched. The earlier in life these changes take place, the greater the alterations in facial growth The largest increments of growth occur during the earliest years of life. In the first six months of life, the child’s weight doubles and in the first three years of life, height doubl
