Did you know that having a constantly open mouth as a child is really detrimental to the development and growth of your mouth’s palate, your overall posture, your nose, and many other parts of your facial and bodily structure?

Physiologically speaking, your mouth should be closed most of the time. If it is, the crown/tip of your tongue should rest right on top if your alveoles, ie. just before your upper front teeth. This leads to your palate being formed and molded as a child into what you should know today. If for some reason you only rarely have your mouth closed as a child, this can lead to a deformed palate, making it more difficult to speak in the future, breathe etc. Furthermore, you are more likely to get sick since you’re not breathing through your nose where all of the bacteria you passively inhale through the air are filtered out by your tonsils. Additionally, your nose may be malformed by its irregular use as well since the air your breathe in and out helps form your nose too.

Potential reasons for not breathing through your nose might be problems with your jaws (overbite/underbite) or teeth, inflamed tonsils that hinder your ability to breathe through your nose, a too short tongue frenulum that hinders the ability to properly reach your palate, and more.

Happy breathing. :D