Mouth Breathing Negatively Affects Mouth Closure Maneuver in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Mouth taping: a little less conversation, a little more action, please!

“…Interestingly, one study on a small cohort of people ( n = 20) with mild sleep apnoea showed mouth taping improved snoring index and decreased the number of apnoea/hypopnoea events (Lee et al., 2022). The effects, however, are mixed, with a recent study of 66 people with obstructive sleep apnoea reporting improved airflow in general with mouth closure, but decreased airflow in people who have resorted to mouth breathing and are dependent upon it owing to nasal obstruction (Yang et al., 2023). Others have shown that mouth taping increases the efficacy of a mandibular advancement device used to treat obstructive sleep apnoea (Labarca et al., 2022).…”