Mouth taping has become a viral wellness trend among influencers and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Graham and Emma Roberts. However, Canadian researchers are warning that putting tape or an adhesive patch over your mouth while sleeping could be "extremely unsafe" if you have breathing issues.
A study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One indicated mouth taping could be harmful when trying to treat problems like mouth breathing and sleep disordered breathing. It could also be dangerous for someone with sleep apnea, a disorder where a person's breathing stops repeatedly while they're sleeping.
Dr. Brian Rotenberg, a senior author on the study, told Yahoo Canada there are two main reasons why people should likely avoid this home remedy. "If the patient is having nasal obstruction, there's usually a reason for that," the otolaryngologist at London Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph's Health Care London and Western University in Ontario explained.
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"It is better to have that reason investigated by a qualified health-care practitioner -- for example a primary-care physician, an ENT (ear, nose and throat) person like myself or a nurse practitioner -- to actually make a diagnosis than doing a Band-Aid and treating it without knowing the cause," he added.
The sleep surgeon further explained there are numerous people who are unaware they have sleep apnea. About nine per cent of men and three to four per cent of women have the disorder and remain unaware, he indicated. "We're talking millions of Canadians and way more Americans and way more globally."
What is mouth taping, and why do some people swear by it?
Mouth taping is a home remedy method that involves a person placing a tape or adhesive patch over their mouth when going to sleep. This is meant to reduce their mouth breathing at night, pushing them to use their nose to breath. In turn, nose breathing should warm and humidify the air entering the body, reducing snoring and improving sleep quality.
In November 2022, Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow shared on Instagram she was using a product called MyoTape, touting it was "probably the single best wellness tool" she'd recently found: "Breathing through your nose at night apparently creates alkalinity in the body and promotes the best quality sleep."
The following May, supermodel Ashley Graham posted similar reviews to the practice, saying she had "never slept better." Actress Emma Roberts also recently called it "life changing" and that she wakes up feeling "more refreshed." Influencers online have lately been echoing similar sentiments, claiming that sleeping this way has improved their asthma symptoms, increased their oral hygiene and even sharpened their jawline.
Is mouth taping actually dangerous without expert advice?
But according to Rotenberg's research in collaboration with Halifax-based paediatric otolaryngologist Dr. Elise Graham and Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry resident Jess Rhee, there wasn't any strong evidence of mouth taping health benefits. The team looked at 86 existing studies on the topic, and gave an in-depth review of 10 worth looking over. Out of those studies, eight showed no benefits and two suggested minimal benefits.
Rotenberg used an analogy of a patient who is seeing their vision worsen. In some cases, that might simply be a case of needing new glasses.
"But what if you have glaucoma? What if you have cataracts? What if you have retinal disease? All those things can present as decreases in vision that are otherwise non-specified," Rotenberg noted. "But you would never not go to your eye doctor. You wouldn't just order glasses off the internet and say, 'Let's give them a go.' You would actually do something about it and investigate it."
He said the same analogy works with the nose, which is a part of the body that can have "lots of issues" that cause breathing problems. Those might include a deviated septum, nasal polyps or even a tumour. "Those things are not going to get fixed with mouth taping," he shared.
When it comes to having sleep apnea, he said mouth taping can become "extremely unsafe" and can potentially make the disorder even worse: "When you have sleep apnea, the throat's collapsing in. So your throat's collapsing, now your nose is blocked and you're treating your nose blockage by covering your mouth. At that point, what's left to breathe through?"
So, should mouth taping be entirely banned?
A few years ago, Rotenberg said he initially thought mouth taping was just another viral trend that wasn't worth spending time worrying about. But over time, he and his collaborators noted how it became a real thing that people were continuously doing. That pushed him to begin research on the topic about a year and a half ago.
If a patient was asking about potentially using mouth taping as a remedy, Rotenberg said he'd do an assessment and then conduct an examination to see what might be happening: "More often than not, I would likely see something happening to cause the obstruction, in which case I would not offer mouth taping but I would offer them other therapies that are evidence based and science based."
Still, he noted there may be the odd occasion where a patient won't have any reason why they're not breathing through their nose. "Something like that, I think [mouth taping] would be OK." However, he urged people to
"Just to be clear, I don't want to portray mouth taping as the root of all evil on planet Earth -- it's not like that. There for sure some people out there who would probably benefit from this," he shared. "My thesis is to have people apply a little more thought before they just initiate something because of an influencer suggesting this is a good idea. Actually look into it and think, 'What's the problem here in the first place?'"