Nose vs Mouth - Breathing!

 Our nose has been created to deal specifically with breathing, with bringing oxygen in and letting CO2 out.

Our nose is constructed in a way where there's nose hairs in there. There's different structures in the nose that filter air as we breathe in. So it filters out particles like pollen and things of that nature. It warms the air and moisturizes it before it goes into our lungs, and this is more comfortable for our lungs.

One of the biggest things that happens when we breathe through our nose is that it produces nitric oxide. Now, this is a substance that is produced in different places in our body. About 25% of the nitric oxide in our body is produced in our nose. The function of nitric nitric oxide is to vasodilate. So it opens up the blood vessels and allows for more blood flow. In this case, it allows for more oxygen uptake because of that vasodilation.

Now about the mouth. Our mouth is really made for eating and laughing and singing and talking and coughing and sneezing and all that other stuff. What happens when we breathe mostly through our mouth? There is no filtering. The air isn't warmed or moisturized when it goes into the lungs. And very importantly, there's no nitrous oxide production.

We don't get as much oxygen into our bodies as we could if we were breathing through our nose. The other thing is that when we breathe through our mouth, sometimes we take in too much air and this could have the possibility of collapsing some of our collapsible airways.

Now where this is really coming in is during sleep. We can get seven or eight hours of sleep, which is great, but if it's not good quality sleep, it doesn't matter whether you sleep eight hours or 10 hours or whatever.

And this is an issue for people who breathe through their mouth. So what happens is you'll wake up with a dry mouth, with a dry throat. And people who breathe through their mouth at night tend to snore, but not everybody. And that is a problem with your airway. And some of that progresses to sleep apnea, which is a whole other situation.

I learned a lot about this issue between nose breathing and mouth breathing from Dr. Mark Burhenne. He is a sleep dentist in California. He does dental work, but he can also help diagnose sleep problems because a lot of those issues affect our mouth and our facial structures.

So he wrote a book called the "The 8-Hour Sleep Paradox - How we are sleeping our way to FATIGUE, DISEASE and UNHAPPINESS" I would really encourage you to read through this. It's very informative.

Especially if you're a parent, because young children who breathe through their mouth at night can have a lot of problems. It can really affect their their facial structure, how their teeth come in and much more. So I would really encourage you to look at his book. And also he has a website called AskTheDentist.com, where he answers lots of questions on all different things about dental health.

Thank you so much for listening. If this video was helpful to you, consider please subscribing to my YouTube channel and yes, get Dr. Burhenne's book.

Thank you!

Dr Elaine

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.