The Benefits of Nasal Breathing: How to Improve Your Nose and Mouth Health

Breathing is a vital involuntary body function that ensures a constant and adequate oxygen supply to the body. Nasal breathing is more common, but knowing how the dynamic changes when you breathe with your mouth is necessary. How you breathe can significantly impact your overall health and sometimes may require an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor. Whether you do so through your nose or mouth, each holds relevant information worth knowing.

Maintains Oral Health and Helps Alleviate Ear, Nose and Throat Conditions

Did you know that nasal breathing stimulates saliva production? You can experiment by breathing through your mouth for a few minutes, after which you will experience sudden oral dryness. That, however, is not the case with nasal breathing. Saliva helps keep your mouth moist and maintains the correct potential of hydration balance, which can further forestall bacteria production. It is a natural oral defense against bacteria and helps prevent tooth decay and bad breath.

Mouth breathing, especially during sleep, causes reduced saliva production, creating an ideal environment for bacteria to thrive. If you breathe through your mouth during sleep, it may be time to see an ENT doctor, as you could have a blockage in your nasal airway or a deviated septum. Fortunately, these can be resolved with the right medical interventions. In other instances, an ENT doctor may suggest certain lifestyle modifications to help improve your nasal breathing.

Efficient Filtering, Humidifying and Warming of Inhaled Air

Your nasal passage is lined with tiny hairs called cilia. Their primary function is to filter dust and other harmful particles in the air before you inhale them into your lungs. The filtration begins from the nostrils before the air proceeds through the scroll-shaped bones called the nasal concha. It’s worth noting that the cool air you breathe in is warmed before it enters your chest cavity, where your lungs are located.

The primary reason is to avoid causing damage to the lungs. From this point, you will notice that your breathing goes through some stages before reaching its final destination. These are:

• Air reception
• Filtration
• Warming
• Humidifying
• Gas exchange in the lungs

In sharp contrast, mouth breathing does not offer this filtering and humidifying mechanism. In other words, everything inhaled through the mouth goes straight into the lungs. Admittedly, mouth breathing may offer temporary relief when you have nasal congestion. However, doing that can give rise to throat dryness and irritation. By becoming aware of these differences, you will be helping yourself to breathe better and be more mindful.

Enhanced Oxygen Absorption

Nasal breathing promotes optimal oxygen absorption into the body. After filtering, humidifying and warming are completed, your lungs benefit from the clean air. Because the nasal passage is specifically designed for airflow, it plays a significant role in slowing down the volume of air that enters your lungs at a go. What seems like a delay is a mechanism allowing more time for oxygen exchange. While this happens, the blood vessel network in the nasal cavity transfers oxygen into the main circulatory system. With this explanation, it’s easy to see that the strictly controlled air flow from the nasal cavity into the lungs initiates a series of vital processes.

Moreover, the cells in your body need oxygen to perform several functions, including hemoglobin production. So, the next time you take conscious breaths, do it from the diaphragm, not the chest. That is how you can take deep breaths for your body to extract more oxygen.

Improved Lung Function

Your diaphragm is the dome-shaped muscle beneath your lungs and acts as the roof of the abdominal cavity. When you breathe through your nose, your diaphragm engages in a more efficient breathing pattern, allowing it to move fully to promote deeper breaths. More importantly, it helps with better lung expansion as this organ takes in more air. Deep inhalation and exhalation play a significant role in strengthening the diaphragm while improving overall lung capacity.

Some people may struggle to do diaphragmatic breathing and use only the chest for this activity. Experts, however, say that is not the correct way to breathe. If you practice it right now, you will notice that mouth breathing relies more on the chest muscles. Moreover, that also provides shallow breaths. On the other hand, nasal inhalation makes better use of the diaphragm for deeper breaths which helps expand the lungs and improve respiratory function.

Contact Us Today

Are you having issues that may be interfering with normal nasal breathing? Consider visiting ENT Physicians Inc. today. You can call us today at (419) 318-4987 to book an appointment.