Have you heard of mouth taping? Turns out it’s pretty useful outside of the usual hostage scenario.

It may sound crazy, but people are taping their mouths shut at night, and they’re waking up feeling better than they’ve ever felt.

Here’s the deal—mouth taping promotes nose breathing, and nose breathing is the way nature intended us to breathe. Unfortunately, over time, our modern lifestyle filled with stress and emotionally burning the candle at both ends has led to an increased reliance on breathing through our mouth. And now, to help regulate our mouth breathing, we need to physically tape our mouths shut to breathe normally again. Dr Mark Burhenne of askthedentist.com is the leader in the dentistry world changing how we approach gum disease and cavities from full spectrum look oral health with mouth taping.

But isn’t air the same no matter where it’s entering our bodies from?

Actually, no, it’s not. The sinuses produce an important gas called nitric oxide, and while it’s made in small amounts, it significantly enhances our lungs’ capacity to absorb oxygen. When we breathe through our nose, we get all the powerful benefits of increased oxygen—enhanced memory and learning, regulated blood pressure, reduced inflammation, improved sleep quality, increased endurance and strength, and improved immune function.

The nose is for breathing, the mouth is for eating.

When we breathe through our mouths, on the other hand, we’re leaving 25% of our oxygen on the table and are left feeling tired, groggy, foggy, and sick. Mouth breathing is terrible for us. It literally elevates blood pressure and heart rate; increases stress response; worsens asthma and allergies; and deprives the heart, brain, and other vital organs of oxygen. Not to mention it causes unpleasant dry mouth, which can make a mess of the oral microbiome, leading to bad breath and increased susceptibility to cavities.

With every patient we assess breathing patterns since this is the thing we do most in our day, we breath 22,000-25,000 times a day. We ask the essential questions including: Do you grind your teeth or snore? Do you have a deviated septum that you know about? Do you wake up with a dry mouth? Do you wake up frequently in the middle of the night? Do you have sleep apnea? Do you have a hard time falling asleep? Is you answered yes to any of these questions, lets have a more serious chat.

I want you to do a little experiment—even if you’re shaking your head right now because you’re so sure you don’t breathe through your mouth. Try mouth taping tonight, and don’t worry, we get the question “how will I breath?” all time. Smooch your kids, smooch your husband, then slap that tape across your lips and head to snoozeville. Note the status of said tape in the morning. Did you rip it off in the night? Did it fall off? Clear indications you’re a bonafide mouthbreather. What makes the best kind of tape? Micropore tape works just fine and if you are afraid that the tape won’t come off you need more oxygen, fold the tape over on both ends. If you want what the pro’s use, get snorless stripes and place them over the mouth vertically at first and then horizontally as you become a pro. For the quick and dirty version is you don’t have any fancy tape, bandaids will do just fine.

Go pick up some better mouth-taping tape and do it again tomorrow night. Notice how you feel: Are you well rested? Do you feel calmer? You should begin to feel the effects of that increased oxygen immediately if you sleep the whole night with the tape intact. If it continually comes off, that’s a sign pointing you to an ENT or other specialist who can help get to the root cause of nasal blockages that might be making it difficult to breathe through your nose.

Good luck on your mission and don’t worry what your family thinks of you—chances are, they should be mouth taping too. It won’t be long until they see your vitality and are convinced they should give it a whirl. The family that tapes together stays together.

If you have more questions, lets chat in person about how you are sleeping. To schedule an appointment call 212-355-0445 or email us at hello@urbanwellnessclinic.com

Best in Health xo

Dr Emily Kiberd