Your Breathing Affects More Than Your Lungs

Breathing should feel automatic. But how you breathe can have effects throughout the body.

Dr. Hobson explains that people who struggle to breathe comfortably through their nose may compensate by opening their mouth and moving their head forward to help create more space in the airway.

That compensation may help them breathe, but it can also place additional stress on the neck, jaw, shoulders, and surrounding muscles.

Over time, these patterns can become so normal that people don’t even realize they’re doing them.

The Connection Between Forward Head Posture and the Jaw

One of the most interesting discussions in the episode centers around forward head posture.

When the head moves forward and the neck extends, the position and tension of the muscles surrounding the jaw change too.

That matters because the jaw doesn’t function independently from the head and neck.

Dr. Hobson describes how airway difficulties can contribute to a cascade of compensations: the head moves forward, the rib cage elevates, neck and chest muscles become more involved in breathing, and posture throughout the body can begin to change.

For someone experiencing jaw pain, headaches or chronic neck tension, understanding those relationships can provide another piece of the puzzle.

Why Tongue Position Matters

Where is your tongue when you’re not talking or eating?

It sounds like a small detail, but tongue position plays an important role in oral function.

During the episode, Dr. Hobson discusses the importance of proper tongue-to-palate suction and how the back of the tongue interacts with the soft palate.

She explains how training tongue position and function may be useful for certain patients dealing with airway instability, snoring, clenching, or dysfunctional breathing patterns.

The bigger message is simple:

The tongue is part of the airway and part of the TMJ conversation.

Mouth Breathing in Children

Parents will want to pay particular attention to this portion of the episode.

Dr. Hobson shares her own experience discovering that her children were mouth breathers and explains some of the signs parents can watch for.

These can include chronic congestion, sleeping with the lips apart, snoring, noisy breathing, difficulty comfortably chewing with the mouth closed, and other patterns that may suggest a child isn’t breathing efficiently through their nose.

Mouth breathing during childhood may also influence how the jaws, palate, and face develop.

The tongue normally helps support development of the oral structures as a child grows. When the tongue sits low to make room for mouth breathing, that normal relationship can change.

That’s one reason Dr. Mistry believes breathing and airway should be part of the conversation when evaluating a child’s oral development.

What Does Snoring Have to Do With Clenching?

Snoring isn’t simply an annoying nighttime sound.

Dr. Hobson discusses the relationship between airway instability, tongue position, snoring, and clenching.

When the airway isn’t stable during sleep, the body may recruit muscles and change positions in an effort to maintain airflow. For some patients, addressing tongue function, nasal breathing, and airway stability may therefore become an important part of understanding nighttime clenching.

It doesn’t mean every person who clenches has an airway problem.

It means airway function is another factor worth evaluating rather than assuming the problem begins and ends with the teeth.

Your Bite and Your Posture May Be More Connected Than You Think

The conversation gets even more interesting when Dr. Hobson discusses research she conducted with the late Dr. Ira Shapiro examining the relationship between the bite and pelvic balance.

Participants walked while using a device designed to temporarily balance their bite. Dr. Hobson reports that 80% of the 30 participants showed improvement in pelvic balance afterward.

For Dr. Hobson, the experiment helped demonstrate something she sees clinically: changes occurring at the jaw and bite may have effects farther down the body.

It is another reminder of why Dr. Mistry approaches TMJ disorders as more than simply a problem with one joint.

What Is Buteyko Breathing?

The episode also dives into Buteyko breathing, a method focused on reducing excessive breathing volume and developing more controlled nasal breathing.

Dr. Hobson explains that some people chronically breathe faster or take in more air than their bodies require, particularly when stressed or anxious.

Her approach involves teaching patients to become aware of those patterns and gradually develop slower, gentler breathing.

During the podcast, she walks Dr. Mistry and Dr. Alex through a simple breathing exercise involving gentle nasal breathing, controlled exhalation, pauses, tongue position, and humming.

The purpose isn’t simply to “take a deep breath.”

It’s about retraining how you breathe.

Listener Question: My Child Sleeps With Their Mouth Open and Snores. What Should I Do?

One listener asks about a child who can’t keep his mouth closed while sleeping and snores.

Dr. Hobson recommends that parents look beyond the snoring itself and have the child’s breathing and airway evaluated.

The important question is why the child needs to breathe through their mouth in the first place.

Is the nose chronically congested? Is tongue function contributing? Is there an anatomical airway issue? Is dysfunctional breathing involved?

Determining the cause is more valuable than simply trying to stop the sound of snoring.

Listener Question: Could Breathing Be Connected to ADHD Symptoms?

The second listener question explores whether mouth breathing, noisy chewing, and breathing difficulties could be related to symptoms seen in children diagnosed with ADHD.

Dr. Hobson discusses associations she observes between dysfunctional breathing, low carbon dioxide tolerance, anxiety, difficulty focusing, and ADHD-like symptoms.

That doesn’t mean breathing problems are the cause of every child’s ADHD or that breathing therapy replaces appropriate medical care.

But for a child who snores, mouth breathes, struggles to breathe while eating, or shows other airway concerns, a breathing and airway assessment may reveal an additional issue worth addressing.

What The TMJ Doc Wants You to Know

Your jaw doesn’t exist independently from the rest of your body.

Breathing, tongue position, airway, posture, the neck, muscles, sleep, and the bite can all interact.

If you’re experiencing chronic jaw pain, headaches, neck tension, clenching, snoring, or other persistent symptoms, looking at the bigger picture may help uncover factors that have previously been overlooked.

And for parents, pay attention to how your children breathe.

Do they sleep with their mouth open? Snore? Always seem congested? Struggle to chew with their lips together?

Those small observations can provide valuable information about what’s happening with their breathing and airway.

In this episode of Unclenched, Dr. Priya Mistry, Dr. Alex, and Dr. Jennifer Hobson connect the dots between the airway and the rest of the body and explain why sometimes the path toward understanding TMJ problems begins with something as fundamental as how you breathe.

Listen to the full episode of Unclenched to hear the complete conversation.