Metal Mouth Message Board

I am wondering if anyone else out there has any breathing issues that cause them to touch their faces in their sleep? I have difficulty breathing out of the left side of my nose and tend to press my hand to my cheeck when I sleep to aid in breathing. I fear that when I get my braces on Thursday that I will start ripping holes in my cheeks. Any idea or anyone else out there that has had this problem?

Also, in the morning I often wake up with my lips practically glued to my teeth. I can only imagine how painful this will be! Any tips to avoid that glued feeling with the braces?

I have the same problem as you. I've been suffering from a chronic sinus condition for years that is worse on the left side and often sleep with my hand under that side of my face. I had my braces put on a week ago and so far there hasn't been a problem with any extra irritation because of this although your experience might be different.

Be warned you're going to have discomfort/irritation in those areas anyway which can be lessened with the use of dental wax that you can place over the offending bracket/wire but you probably wouldn't want to use this at night while sleeping.

You might want to keep a glass of water by your bed and take a sip each time you wake up if possible. This helps somewhat with the dry mouth which in my case does get incredibly bad (both day and night)since being braced. I also apply lip balm during the night when I wake up and this helps a bit.

Good luck.

My friend had the same problem and didn't realize that it was caused by a deviated septum. She just thought it was a minor annoyance. She had a small surgery and says it makes the world of difference in how rested she feels now that she breathes properly at night. Might be worth investigating to see if you can find the cause?

I do have a deviated septum, I know this from when they needed to put a tube down my nose into my stomach for some tests once. The left side of my nasal passages is so narrow that it couldn't even make it up and over the arch of the nose. So I know that is at least part of the problem. But it is something that I have to at least "deal" with right now.

Johnny B, it is good to know that since it sounds like you pretty much do the same thing, that it hasn't caused you any real problems. Hopefully I will be that lucky! But I have already ordered a "bumper" off of this site and we will see if that also helps to protect me. So I feel a little better even if I don't get the bumper in time for Thursday, I will at least know that it is on the way!

Thanks to you both!

You're welcome!

I was just thinking....you may want to try those strips that go on the nose to keep your passages open. They do work....they don't seem to fit my nose correctly though and tend to come off a lot so I don't use them often.

I have thought about trying those, my husband uses them all the time. The only issue with that is that my skin is very sensitive to adhesives and wearing a bandage for more than a couple of days leaves me with sores where the adhesive was So I am not so sure if I want to have my nose tore up, which others can see, or the inside of my mouth which will be my own private torture? SIGH!

Problem take care of by Orthos office yesterday! They gave me a mouth guard like kids in sports use and is having me sleep in that. It isn't the most comfortable things in the world since you can't close your mouth completely, but it is better than tearing up my mouth in my sleep!