mtnguyen wrote: ↑Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:49 am
reason why you mouth breathe is because your nasal airway is narrow, narrow nasal airway dries up your turbinate and makes it swells, I also have UARS and the treatment for me to reduce nasal resistance is palatal expander, according to research, using palatal expander reduce 35% of nasal resistance and 59% of sleep apnea patients find it easier to breathe and reduce sleep apnea, hope you were on the same track as me, I lived with sleep apnea for 15 years bc my mother is ignorant and stupid for not fixing my teeth, after seeing a huge medical bills for orthodontic even though she totally can afford it, she chose not to fix my teeth... if my mom were a teacher, she will teach the course name-IDGAF101-"how to ruin your kid's life 101", also breathe through your mouth until your nasal airway is no longer narrow, or you will suffer with constant fatigue, or if you want to take a risk, medrol 16mg will help with your nasal congestion, you will feel much better but your skin and hair will dry and flaky, for me fluticasone or mometasone nasal spray don't help at all, if you fix your narrow nasal airway you will have to sleep with CPAP for the rest of your life. That's all I have to say...
This is the research, of if you are afraid of virus, google reduce nasal airway resistance
https://academic.oup.com/ejo/article-pd ... 260397.pdf
I don't disagree with what you're saying. You should look into 'Mike Mew', he's an orthodontist that specialises in this sort of stuff. I totally buy in to his theories. Mouth breathing CAUSES a narrow pallete, so mouth breathing until you fix your nasal resistance is actually somewhat paradoxical. The 2 biggest causes are incorrect tongue posture, and an incorrect swallow. If you mouth breathe, you CAN'T have correct tongue posture, it's physically impossible. The tongue at rest should stay on the roof of your mouth, and when you swallow it should be done with the tongue pressing up against the pallette.
People who mouth breathe have a tongue that rests lower in their mouth, they also usually swallow with their face muscles.. In a correct swallow, nothing should move but your throat/adams apple - you should see virtually 0 movement in the actual face. It's the tongue position that encourages correct cranofacial developement.. When the tongue rests on the roof, and everytime you swallow, you're applying pounds of force onto your structure, this encourages the face to grow longtindunal and horizontally. Hence you'll notice that people that mouth breathe, especially from a younge age often have longer faces, narrower jaws and often sunken chins.
Until 1 month ago, I had incorrect tongue posture. I've now corrected it.. The debate is, can tongue posture alone in adulthood influence cranofacial development enough to correct the issue? I'd argue yes, although changes will happen more radidly in younger years, adults still see changes in structure.. Look at a stroke victim, or steven hawkin. Once the muscle balance changes, their cranofacial development changed.
Using a palattal expander is all good and well, but if you're still maintaining poor tongue posture, as soon as you remove that, it's likely you'll revert backwards. UNLESS you correct tongue posture, as the tongue fundamentally is what determines facial development.
I do think you need to re-evaluate how you are looking at the process. Mouth breathing CAUSES the issue, the issue doesn't happen spontaneously (in 90+% of people anyway.) It's not hereditary, they've shown that in studies of pure bread inuits. It's largely due to environmental factors.
You'll also often notice a correlation, I have found this in my own circle of friends and family. ALL of my friends who have allergies, have narrower faces, and mouth breathe more than they should to some degree. It's a self perpetuating cycle. Mouth breathing CAUSES allergies to a large degree, beacuse you don't filter out the pollutants, that causes congestion, which then causes you to mouth breathe further.. As that happens over time, your facial development goes wrong (and grows downwards rather than out and across), which then further narrows the airway.
But the way you're talking about it (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that it seems you think that facial development happens of no reason, and that mouth breathing is the consequence of it. Where as I'd argue (as would Dr Mike Mew) that the reverse is true.
WHY we start mouth breathing in the first place, is the question. It can be due to allergies, bad habits, you name it. He also argues the reason we swallow incorrectly is because of the types of food we eat. Western diet is full of soft foods, which require little chewing (reducing masseter and other jaw muscular development) and allowing us to swallow incorrectly.
So my plan is: to maintain good tongue posture, day and night, and also continue with CPAP for now - and I HOPE that over time my new tongue posture will encourage my face to develope more correctly, opening up my airways, and potentially solving the issue - however this is a process that will take place over time. The other issue is tongue tone. The tongue is a muscle, and when postured correctly, is effectively being 'worked' more heavily and will improve tone over time.. Those that mouth breathe effectively have a 'lazy' tongue, it's in a rested position more often than not, and therefor is more likely to collapse backwards during sleep. Correct tongue posture and swallowing anchors the tongue to the roof of your mouth. You'll notice that once you learn to swallow correctly, each time you swallow the tongue is literally suctioned to the roof of your mouth.. so when you start doing that unconciously day and night, your tongue is anchored forward and doesn't collapse back so much - hence why the numerous studies done on orofacial myotherapy show improvement in AHI scores, the issue is they're often only done over a short period of time, and to see enough improvement to solve the issue (if possible) will take longer than 3 months in a grown adult.
Ofc if you believe the process happens otherwise, that's fine. Everyone is going to have their own theories that resonate with them, but Mike Mew's work to me makes TOTAL sense and correlates with my life.
Ofc there are other reasons Sleep Apnea and SDB can occur, this is only one element of it. However my guess is that patients especially with UARS, this is most likely the cause (hence why UARS sufferers often respond better to MAD devices, because pulling the mandible forward brings the tongue forward, and often in UARS the tongue is the primary cause of obstruction.)
But I suspect if you're using a palletal expander, you almost certainly won't have correct tongue posture, as the device is going to prevent your tongue resting correctly on the hard pallete, and you'll continue to swallow incorrectly too. So although it might force your facial development to change in the right way, in the absence of the device that will revert unless the tongue is there to maintain it.
