[pediatric department] If children's mouth breathing is caused by disease, it will not be "cured" by the adhesive tape attached to their mouth. Moreover, for children with poor breathing caused by diseases, the use of sealing "artifact" will only make things worse, leading to more serious brain hypoxia. Please Chief physician of Pediatrics, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University It is reported that a 5-year-old boy in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province likes to sleep with his mouth open, so his parents bought a "closure sticker" to make him shut up and sleep. As a result, the child had more difficulty breathing. The boy's adenoid body was found to be hypertrophic and surgery was necessary. Many parents worry that long-term oral breathing may make the child's face ugly, teeth deformed, affect the quality of sleep, and then affect the child's development and IQ. Therefore, some of them, like the parents in Changzhou, bought "sealing stickers" to improve their children's breathing problems. The reporter of science and Technology Daily found on some online shopping platforms that there are not a few stores with "100000 +" sales volume, and the evaluation of buyers seems to be very "positive", such as "changing children's bad habits", "children's voice of beating is much less", "children have rhinitis, and they don't sleep with their mouths open after use" Kan Xuan, chief physician of pediatrics at the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, told the science and Technology Daily that "oral breathing is not a normal state, which should be paid attention to by parents. However, oral breathing is only a symptom. What we really need to pay attention to is the disease behind oral breathing. Otherwise, children who breathe through the mouth due to nasal obstruction, rhinitis and adenoidal hypertrophy may have anoxia or even suffocation if their mouths are sealed." Oral breathing is a special or abnormal condition Not long ago, there was a hot search on the entry "long-term open mouth breathing is easy to lead to ugly face". Its accompanying article pointed out that long-term open mouth breathing will lead to lengthening of upper jaw, bucking of teeth, thick and short lips, widening of eye cracks... At the same time, a comparison chart was attached, which made many parents feel very anxious. "When normal people breathe, they breathe through the nasal cavity, while oral breathing, as the name suggests, refers to breathing through the mouth." Kan Xuan said that under normal conditions, the normal breathing mode of all people is nasal breathing, and oral breathing is a special or abnormal state. The reason why oral breathing makes people ugly is that when people breathe through the mouth, in order to open the oral passage, the tongue will fall back and sink. For a long time, the mandible that should have been developed forward and downward may be restricted and retracted, resulting in the breaking of the balance of power between the tongue and the upper jaw, cheek muscles and tongue muscles, resulting in abnormal facial bone development, resulting in the face becoming longer and narrower. In addition, during oral breathing, the air flow impacts the teeth for a long time, which will lead to irregular arrangement of teeth, poor occlusion, narrow dental arch and protrusion of upper anterior teeth. This set of "combination boxing" will not only lower the "face value", but also affect the growth and development of children. Long term oral breathing causes poor breathing and hypoxia during sleep, which affects the sleep quality of children, and then affects the secretion of growth hormone, resulting in short stature, light weight or excessive obesity. The lack of oxygen during sleep leads to a long-term lack of blood oxygen saturation in the child. Over time, it will cause problems such as inattention during the day, slow response, memory decline, learning difficulties, etc. At the same time, during normal nasal breathing, air enters the human respiratory tract through nasal filtration; When breathing through the mouth, the air directly enters the child's mouth, which increases the chances of respiratory tract and oral infection with bacteria and viruses. Oral breathing is mostly caused by diseases Knowing the harm of mouth breathing, many parents are eager to find ways to correct mouth breathing, and many of them have bought "sealing stickers" for their children. On the Internet, this product is regarded as a sealing "artifact", but in fact it is adhesive tape with different shapes pasted on the mouth. Its principle is to "stick" the child's mouth directly with physical methods, forcing him to close his mouth and breathe only with his nose. Is this "simple and crude" method really effective? "In fact, oral breathing is not a disease, but a symptom. In most cases, it is caused by diseases." Kan Xuan said that a variety of diseases may cause such symptoms, including nasal diseases (such as rhinitis, maxillary sinusitis, hypertrophy of nasal concha, deviation of nasal septum, etc.), tonsillar swelling, adenoid hypertrophy, etc. "These diseases will block the nasopharynx and oropharynx, resulting in the stricture of the upper respiratory tract, resulting in partial or total obstruction of the respiratory passage. Children can only breathe through the mouth to increase ventilation." Kan Xuan said. At the same time, some mouth breathing is not caused by respiratory obstruction. For example, some children have congenital abnormal jaw development. Their jaw retraction and maxillary protrusion cause their lips to fail to close normally. In addition, children's acquired bad habits may also cause mouth breathing. For example, if a child often bites the lower lip, it will cause the protrusion of the upper teeth, which will cause the upper lip to be soft and upturned, and will also cause the upper and lower lips to be slightly separated, causing mouth breathing. "If children's mouth breathing is caused by disease, it will not be 'cured' by the adhesive tape pasted on their mouth. Moreover, for children whose breath is blocked due to disease, the use of sealing 'artifact' will only make things worse, leading to more serious brain hypoxia and even suffocation." Kan Xuan stressed. First go to the hospital if you find any symptoms It is not difficult to find out whether the child has mouth breathing problems. As long as the parent puts his hand or a note on the child's mouth while the child is sleeping, he can feel whether there is airflow exhaling. If there is, he can breathe through the mouth. If the child simply opens his mouth but does not breathe with his mouth, he can only be counted as habitual opening his mouth. In addition, parents can also pay attention to their children's mental state during the day. Some children have slept for 89 hours, but still feel very sleepy during the day. At this time, parents should be alert. Some children with mouth breathing will also have obvious changes in appearance, such as buckteeth and gums. "Once parents find their children breathing, they should not think about their own treatment. They should immediately take their children to a professional Otolaryngology, stomatology or pediatrics department to find out the causes of mouth breathing in time." Kan Xuan said that once the cause of the disease is identified in the specialist clinic, timely treatment is required, so as to fundamentally improve the symptoms of mouth breathing. Adenoid hypertrophy is a common cause of mouth breathing in children with upper respiratory tract diseases that block breathing. Adenoids and tonsils are homologous tissues. After a child is born, adenoids gradually increase with age. Generally, the peak period of increase is from 3 to 6 years old, and they will gradually shrink after puberty. Adenoids are located at the corner between the nasal cavity and the pharynx, through which air from the nose or mouth enters the trachea. Repeated upper respiratory tract infection, rhinitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis and other inflammatory stimuli will cause excessive hyperplasia of adenoids in children and block gas channels. The proliferation of adenoids will cause inflammation in the surrounding tissues, thus forming a vicious circle, and the adenoids cannot atrophy naturally. At present, conservative treatment and surgical treatment of adenoid hypertrophy can achieve good results. The specific treatment method needs to be judged by doctors according to the situation of children. When the disease is cured, oral respiratory symptoms will be improved. For the swelling of nasal mucosa and stenosis of nasal cavity caused by rhinitis and maxillary sinusitis, the doctor will take targeted oral medication according to the severity and type of the disease, and will also guide the patients to use nasal sprays. "Through early diagnosis and treatment, these diseases have been cured or relieved, and the problem of respiratory obstruction has been gradually solved. The nasal breathing is smooth, and the child will no longer breathe through the mouth." Kan Xuan said. For oral breathing caused by non respiratory obstructive diseases, the stomatologist will help judge whether the child has jaw dysplasia, poor tooth occlusion and other problems. Professional doctors will wear customized appliances for children as needed to block mouth breathing through professional treatment. "Of course, at the same time, you can also carry out oral and facial muscle training, such as upper lip, tongue and cheek muscles. When the child shuts up, you can do aerobic breathing training to develop normal nasal breathing habits." Kan Xuan said. In addition, parents can also give their children some training at home to help improve their mouth breathing. For example, nose and mouth breathing training allows children to consciously shut up and breathe; Lip muscle function training: enhance lip muscle function and strength by pursing your mouth, blowing soap bubbles, blowing musical instruments, etc. (outlook new era)