Should you mouth tape?
No doubt you’re wondering if this practice is the right choice for you, afterall you might be struggling with mouth breathing at night.
Celebrities are doing it. Insta-famous Dentists are advocating for it. But is it right for you?
We’ve described the in’s and out’s and the REASON for mouth taping in this blog post, which is to promote nasal breathing. However, the elephant in the room we have NOT addressed is that mouth taping fails to get to the root of the problem.
What is the root of the problem? You haven’t met all of your myo goals; if you had, you wouldn’t need mouth tape.
Did I just say the quiet part out loud? Yep. The reason? We have YOUR best interest at heart.
IF you are struggling to breathe out of your nose day and/or night, the muscles of your mouth are not functioning properly. The purpose of myofunctional therapy is that we would be able to effortlessly breath out of our nose and keep our lips sealed… without really thinking about it. Once the muscles have gained strength and have been trained to function optimally in this manner, the rest should fall into place, including breathing through your nose while you sleep!
It can’t be that simple. And yet, IT IS!
If you’ve completed a myofunctional therapy program and you continue to breathe through your mouth at night, it might be time to come back in for a consult to see WHY and get to the root. We advocate a root cause approach, not just bandaids. While some use mouth taping during a myofunctional program, it should never be the end goal. We prefer to train the muscles, identify any barriers to progress in myo goals, make appropriate referrals when needed, rather than offer a bandaid. Afterall, it’s in your best interest that we do not settle for less than the best.
