09/14/2022
Dental Education!🦷🪥
It is common for humans to breathe through the mouth, but it can cause a lot of problems.
For instance, people with severely worn down and broken teeth likely have some form of sleep-disordered breathing. When the airway collapses and the brain is searching for oxygen, the lower jaw will jet forward to open the airway. In doing so, the teeth scrape over each other violently. This can happen several hundred times a night. This is often referred to as nocturnal bruxism.
Mouth breathing can have serious health consequences. When breathing through the mouth, the air is not filtered, warmed, and humidified properly before it reaches the lungs. Nitric oxide, important in vascular health, is not produced when breathing through the mouth. Filtering the air we inhale is so very important (especially in these times when we are concerned with airborne pathogens).
Another interesting statistic is that the most common pathogens associated with ventilator-acquired pneumonia are oral bacteria.
Keep a healthy mouth and avoid mouth breathing. Yes, nasal breathing CAN be taught! It can even cure asthma!
