When TikTok offers to sleep with your mouth bandaged

Speech therapist Marie-Emmanuelle Marchand is well aware of the phenomenon that has been spreading on TikTok for several months. Not that she is a big user of the Chinese social network (she never goes there), but patients have taken it upon themselves to tell her about it.

The phenomenon in question? Before going to sleep, people put (medical grade) tape over their mouth in an attempt to keep it closed all night. And on TikTok, they praise the supposed benefits: better sleep, more energy, less snoring, less cavities, better breath… And even a more structured, more symmetrical face. The panacea, what!

Too good to be true ?

In effect.

“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t make a career out of it!” “Summarizes Marie-Emmanuelle Marchand, who specializes in “myofunctional” disorders: breathing through the mouth, but also talking on the tip of the tongue, swallowing in an atypical way, clenching your teeth…

That said, tiktokers are not wrong to say that it is better to breathe through your nose. That is true. The body is made for it.

“When you breathe through your nose, not only is the air filtered, humidified and warmed, but it is also added with nitric oxide, which allows a nice dilation at the level of the bronchi, therefore a better exchange of air. “, explains Marie-Emmanuelle Marchand, who gives training in rehabilitation of obstructive sleep disorders. Sleep, she says, is also more restorative.

Breathing through the nose also has an impact on oral health, confirms Nelly Huynh, associate professor at the faculty of dentistry at the University of Montreal and sleep researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine. When you sleep with your mouth open, your mouth dries out, depriving it of the protective effect of saliva, she says. That means more cavities and worse breath.

The tiktokeurs did not invent from scratch this idea of ​​sleeping with your mouth sealed. A few small studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of this practice on snoring in people who suffer from mild apnea. Researchers have also tested it for asthma, but found no benefit.

Sometimes health professionals offer it, but rarely. Pulmonologist at the Sacré-Coeur hospital in Montreal, the D^D Chantal Lafond gives the example of a patient who sleeps with a CPAP mask (the treatment used for obstructive sleep apnea) and who has an expiratory leak. “But personally, I prefer the addition of a chin bar,” she says.

At Mr. and Mrs. Everybody, however, the experts we spoke to see it as a risky practice, at least for some people. None of them recommend it. Nelly Huynh, who works with children, spontaneously thinks of vomiting. “Breathing through the mouth is a mode of survival,” recalls speech therapist Marie-Emmanuelle Marchand.

No control

When we sleep, the brain has no control over breathing; it is done unconsciously, explains the pulmonologist Chantal Lafond. If the air passes easily from the nose to the lungs, the mouth will remain closed and no resistance noise will be heard. “Snoring is the sound signal of a form of resistance to the passage of air during the inspiratory phase”, explains the pulmonologist.

And this resistance, she says, can come from the nasal cavities (congestion of the mucous membranes, deviation of the nasal septum – the nasal bone) or from different parts of the pharynx, for various reasons.

In children, breathing through the mouth often results from enlarged tonsils or adenoids (masses of tissue in the nasal cavity), says speech therapist Marie-Emmanuelle Marchand. Other children will breathe through their mouths after suffering repeated colds and other respiratory viruses. “Adults can also have this fold since childhood”, explains M^me Marchand, who points out that over time, the muscles involved in nasal breathing weaken. The face, she says, may even end up lengthening under the weight of the lower jaw.

People who breathe through their mouths (sometimes for decades) will not magically begin to breathe through their noses with a simple little adhesive tape, underlines the speech therapist.

If the habit is just forming, duct tape can potentially help in rare cases, but not necessarily, she says. “Shutting your lips is not enough. You have to place the tongue in the right place, bring the molars together…”

Understand the cause

The experts agree on one point: instead of looking for the miracle solution to his snoring, his dry mouth in the morning or his lack of energy when he wakes up, it is better to consult a health professional to determine the cause of the problem. … and fix it. “It is also important to rule out a potentially serious problem with sleep quality and sometimes even oxygenation in relation to obstructive sleep apnea, complete or partial blockage of the passage of air to the lungs, for at least 10 seconds, repeatedly,” says D^D Chantal Lafond.

For snorers who do not have obstructive sleep apnea, D^D Lafond recommends good nasal hygiene and, for allergic patients, removal of all allergens from the room. Alcohol and certain sleeping pills can also weaken the tone of the throat muscles, underlines the pulmonologist. It is also better to aim for a healthy weight and avoid sleeping on your back.

After evaluation, different avenues can be considered depending on the underlying problem: vaporizers to decrease inflammation in the nose, surgery, an oral device to keep the jaw in a forward position, myofunctional therapy such as the one designed by Marie -Emmanuelle Marchand – a field of expertise that is still little known in Quebec.

“Better to consult, sums up the researcher Nelly Huynh, because there may be something else behind all that. »