Mouth breathing is the immediate culprit in the development of malocclusion.
During development, the body is seeking the appropriate balance between the sphincter action of the buccinator muscles, which flatten our cheeks and push our jaws inward, and the outward pushing of our tongue, the strongest muscle in the human body.
When children breathe through their mouths, their tongue is often placed out of position for supporting its side of the conflict. This leads to a constriction of the arch of the child's jaw.
In addition, the tongue can rest over where the back teeth are supposed to erupt, hampering the process and forcing the body to move the jaw back in order to properly get the rear teeth together, leading to a general overbite tendency in the population.
Furthermore, the development fostered by this process leads to mouth-breathing for the rest of that child's life in two ways. First, the tongue that now has insufficient room in the arch of the jaw is forced backward into the throat, leading to more constriction of the airway that is rectified with mouth-breathing. Second, the constriction of the arch of the jaw also leads to a high palate that constructs the turbinate space in the airways. This means that any swelling in the sinuses can restrict or block the airway, again forcing mouth breathing.
As bad as the condition sounds, we want you to know mouth breathing is a treatable condition. Doing so, though, requires early diagnosis and treatment.
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