The Mouth Taping Technique
Can snoring, poor breath, and sleep apnea be improved by doing something as easy as taping your lips at night? Continue reading to find out why it may be harmful to your health and is not a proven cure.
Read More: Mouth Tape for Sleep
Mouth Taping: What Is It?
Putting specialized adhesive tape over your lips at night to keep your mouth shut and prevent mouth breathing is known as “mouth taping.”
Mouth Taping Advantages
A well-liked trend in health and wellbeing is mouth taping. It’s possible that you’ve heard social media influencers discussing their mouth taping experiences. Perhaps you’ve seen an advertisement for mouth tape on social media.
It’s important to understand that mouth tape is not a proven medical treatment before you buy it online or at your local pharmacy. The studies that have been conducted are few in number. Before any claims can be validated, further extensive research is required.
Advantages of nasal breathing
You are forced to breathe via your nose when using mouth tape. There are several advantages to nasal breathing over mouth breathing, such as:
regulating the air’s temperature so that it doesn’t get too hot or cold when it enters your lungs
removing pollutants, dust, and allergies from the air before they enter your lungs
humidifying the air you breathe and maintaining moisture in your lips and throat
Issues breathing via the mouth
The notion behind mouth taping also states that you may prevent the unfavorable side effects of mouth breathing while you sleep by breathing through your nose, such as:
foul breath
During the day, weariness or exhaustion
mouth dryness
Bad dental health, such as gum disease and cavities
diminished mental capacity, particularly in working memory
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) symptoms
breathing disorders during sleep, such as sleep apnea
children’s slowed development
Mouth breathing in children can result in “mouth breathing face,” a narrower face with a retracted jaw and chin.
There aren’t many, if any, scientific research on the subject of whether mouth taping genuinely accomplishes these goals. To confirm these claims, more study is required, including how often and what sort of tape is most effective for taping the mouth.
Is Mouth Taping Effective?
Such an easy fix might be alluring if you breathe through your lips at night. Does mouth taping, nevertheless, actually work? What little study has uncovered thus far is as follows:
Mouth taping to treat sleep apnea or snoring
One of the most common signs of sleep apnea is snoring all night long. If you have minor sleep apnea, mouth taping could be helpful. In a pilot research, mouth taping reduced snoring in 30 individuals with moderate sleep apnea who often breathed through their mouths at night. There were no nasal impediments, such as enlarged tonsils or nasal polyps, in any of the research participants.
Mouth tape was observed to minimize snoring in another trial with twenty individuals with moderate sleep apnea, particularly in those with positional sleep apnea, a condition in which resting on one’s back causes symptoms.
While mouth tape can stop persons with sleep apnea from breathing in through their mouths, it may not always stop them from mouth-puffing, or exhaling through their mouths. Those with severe sleep apnea nevertheless attempted to breathe via their mouths or puffed their mouths, according to a research that involved 71 patients with sleep apnea and mouth taping for one night.
In a research involving twenty-one individuals treated for mild to severe sleep apnea using a mandibular advancement device, the addition of adhesive mouthpiece treatment, often known as mouth taping, resulted in a lower apnea-hypopnea (AHI) index score than when the oral device was used alone. Your dentist can fit you with an oral appliance called a mandibular advancement device, which moves your jaw and tongue forward to maintain an unobstructed airway as you sleep. The number of times your breathing slows or pauses during an average sleep hour is measured by the AHI index, which indicates the severity of your sleep apnea.
Using mouth tape to manage asthma
Researchers examined if mouth taping may help control asthma in a short trial of 50 persons with the condition since breathing via the nose helps to filter, warm, and moisturize the air you breathe. The outcome showed that there was no difference in asthma management between 26 and 28 nights of mouth taping.
How Safe Is Mouth Taping?
There is no evidence that mouth taping cures any medical condition. Mouth taping is a treatment used by some to stop excessive or persistent snoring. However, disruptive snoring during sleep is frequently an indication of obstructive sleep apnea.
See your physician if you believe you may have sleep apnea. Though widespread, sleep apnea is frequently misdiagnosed or left untreated. Uncontrolled obstructive sleep apnea may result in:
focusing, retaining information, or managing behavior
Daytime weariness and fatigue
dementia in senior citizens
Children with learning difficulties
Additionally, sleep apnea raises your chance of:
Inhalation
disorders affecting your blood vessels and heart
Skin, kidney, and pancreatic malignancies
persistent renal illness
Issues with the eyes, include glaucoma and dry eyes
Syndrome metabolic
problems during pregnancy
Diabetes type 2
How Should Mouth Taping Be Done?
The practice of mouth taping is just that. Before you go to sleep, you cover your lips with a piece of tape. It’s not, however, just ordinary sticky tape. Additionally, there are actions you may take to improve its comfort and safety.
Despite being an at-home treatment option, mouth taping should not be done with regular adhesive tape since it is not breathable and includes glues that might irritate skin or trigger an allergic response. Most importantly, never use duct tape.
Although studies have not been conducted to advocate a particular type of tape, you can lessen or prevent general discomfort or skin sensitivities by following these guidelines. When selecting a mouth tape, be sure to check:
tape that is suitable for use on human skin, or medical-grade tape
Tape or mouth strips that are porous or breathable. Certain strips have slits or central holes.
Hypoallergenic tape is kind to delicate skin.
Comfort-enhancing flexible tape