What is mouth breathing?
Mouth breathing is breathing by a child who instead of breathing through the nose (as would be appropriate) breathes through the mouth.
This is a problem because when air enters through the nose, it is warmed and cleaned as it passes through the turbinates; conversely, when it enters through the mouth, the air is neither warmed nor cleaned.
What are the symptoms?
When a child breathes through the mouth and not through the nose there are serious consequences on the normal growth of the face (aesthetic and functional repercussions) and on general health.
When a child breathes through the mouth and not through the nose, there are serious consequences.
They are usually children who sleep with their mouth open and snore, have large tonsils, are shorter than they should be and have a wider neck, or have problems with studies and sports.
Causes of mouth breathing
Mouth breathing is usually caused by an obstruction of the upper airways, which can be caused by different factors: inflammation of the nasal mucosa due to allergy, deviation of the nasal septum, malformations, polyps or enlarged angina or vegetations (which is the most common).
Can it be prevented?
Early treatment can prevent a large number of pathologies.
What does the treatment consist of?
Treatment of mouth breathing is based on correcting habits (with the help of a speech therapist) and correcting ENT disorders.
If defects in the dental arches are already established, orthodontics will be necessary.