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If you’re active on certain social media platforms,
you may have heard claims that taping your mouth shut
can cure all sorts of ailments, from snoring, to morning breath, to asthma.
The people making those claims aren’t necessarily scientists or
medical professionals, but even if they were,
that kind of cure-all seems a bit too good to be true.
And in some cases, it is.
But for others, it turns out there is peer reviewed research
that suggests this mouth taping trick might actually work.
So we’re here today to dispense the details:
what’s fact and what’s fiction about mouth taping?
[♪ INTRO]
Technically, the type of tape you’re using to
seal your mouth shut shouldn’t really matter here.
But before any of you start reaching for the duct tape,
you should know that the researchers investigating mouth taping use more
gentle supplies like 3M silicone hypoallergenic tape.
Which you can find at the drugstore.
So pretty much anyone can use mouth tape.
The question is: should you?
And the answer depends on a few things.
Like, why do you want to use mouth tape,
and whether you’ve talked to your doctor about it first.
People try mouth taping to solve a variety of problems, from snoring to bad breath.
But whatever their ailment, mouth taping is thought to help
because it forces them to breathe through their noses instead of their mouths.
That’s because research has suggested that breathing through your nostrils
is better for a variety of reasons, from having
a little extra filtration to keeping things moist.
And given the fact that most people can breathe through either hole,
or set of holes, it makes sense to assume that when one is blocked,
your body will switch to the other easy peasy.
But research suggests it doesn’t do that perfectly.
For example, one study published in March of 2022 found that
mouth taped participants started to mouth puff while they slept.
In other words, they were breathing through the nose,
but that air didn’t go straight into and out of the lungs.
Some of it also spent time in the mouth, puffing out the participants’ cheeks.
It was trying to get out the usual way that was
now blocked by a bunch of pesky tape.
And ultimately, that’s just a less effective way
to get oxygen in and out of your body.
So the foundation of mouth taping might be a bit unstable.
But that hasn’t stopped people from doing it.
For example, some have tried using it to treat asthma.
Because if breathing through your nose does a better job of filtering,
warming, and moistening the air going into your body,
it seems logical that it should also do a better job
at blocking the irritants that can provoke your asthma.
Unfortunately, a trial published in the journal Respiratory Medicine found that
mouth tape didn’t help people with asthma improve their symptoms,
whether they were mouth breathers or not.
So, knowing that it doesn’t do much for asthma,
it might not be surprising to hear the
effects of mouth taping on athletic performance.
Because some people use mouth tape during exercise
to get more oxygen through their body.
The idea is to increase the amount of nitric oxide formed in your nose,
which widens up the blood vessels and helps
pump oxygen more efficiently through your body.
But will slapping some tape on your mouth
actually lead to a boost in athletic performance?
Well, one peer-reviewed case study did find some positive results.
But it was only looking at a single triathlete.
And another study failed to reproduce those results
with its whopping nine participants.
In fact, that team of researchers found that mouth taping
increased their participants’ heart rates while they exercised.
So you might breathe through your mouth when
working out to keep your heart from feeling like it’s about to explode.
And in the end, the team concluded that, given the pros and cons
of mouth breathing and nose breathing in exercise,
you really should just go with whatever you prefer.
But that’s not the only research with inconsistent results
on the benefits of mouth taping.
Because it’s the same situation for sleep apnea.
People diagnosed with sleep apnea don’t breathe consistently while they sleep.
Especially when their mouths are open, the soft palate can move back.
That narrows their upper airway, so it’s harder for air to get through.
And that makes their breathing stop and start over and over.
Now if that sounds like it’s bad for your health, yeah.
It can definitely be dangerous.
Especially when you consider that most of the people with
some stage of sleep apnea are undiagnosed.
Researchers estimate that as many as one in five adults
experience at least a mild form of sleep apnea.
So this is a condition that’s potentially serious and affects a lot of people.
And if we had a simple solution like mouth tape, it would be a huge game changer.
See, many people with sleep apnea breathe through their mouth while sleeping,
which aggravates their sleep apnea.
So mouth taping could hypothetically help stop that vicious cycle.
Unfortunately, there’s conflicting data on whether mouth taping
helps with sleep apnea or makes it worse.
So right now, researchers don’t recommend trying it when you
have moderate-to-severe sleep apnea.
The risk is just not worth it.
Which is a shame, because there is evidence that mouth taping
can manage the snoring that comes along with sleep apnea.
According to one study published in September of 2022,
mouth taping helped most of their participants snore at least 50% less.
Granted, that study only looked at 20 people total with mild sleep apnea.
But it’s nice to know that, at least in this case,
there is some truth to the mouth taping claims.
And here’s one final report that could maybe
lend some support to what people are saying about mouth taping online.
Except technically, it’s not a study on mouth taping at all.
If you experience halitosis, or bad breath, you might breathe through your mouth.
That’ll both dry out your mouth and prevent it from cleaning itself.
A bunch of stinky volatile compounds will
stick around and build up, leading to an unpleasant odor.
In fact, one study assessing 55 children found that only 10% of the participants
without halitosis breathed through their mouths,
while 57% of those with halitosis breathed through their mouths.
So there’s a significant association between breathing
through your nose and a lack of bad breath.
But we can’t say mouth taping specifically
helps fight bad breath until there’s a study that tests it.
Evidence on the benefits of mouth taping is often mixed, often missing,
and often based on very small sample sizes.
So health outlets like the Cleveland Clinic and
Harvard Med have raised concern about the practice.
They say you should talk to your doctor first and make sure
you don’t have something you might not be aware of,
be it undiagnosed sleep apnea or something
blocking your nasal passages like a deviated septum.
The most important thing is that you’re getting enough oxygen,
whether it’s from your nose or mouth.
As always, here’s a reminder that I’m just bringing you the findings from research.
I’m not a medical professional, and you should
definitely talk to one before you try anything I’ve covered.
And if they tell you to stay away from mouth taping,
you should definitely stick with that.
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[♪ OUTRO]