What can your Cranial Osteopath do?
- Take a full case history: try and see what might have started your mouth breathing.
- Perform a physical examination: they will check your tonsils, tongue function, jaw position and movement, your teeth alignment, look in your ears, check your nose, the muscles of your neck, jaw and face area. They will check the way you breath includes your diaphragm a muscle we use to breath, your upper ribs and the spinal joints of your neck and upper back.
- Your osteopath also looks at the shape of your hard palate, and your face.
- Osteopaths who work with osteopathy in the cranial field also pay particular attention to the small but significant shape changes of the bones that make up your cranium, face and nose to assess their function. Injuries to the face, jaw and head, dental work etc can impact the way the bones and their associated tissues work.
- Your osteopath will assess what might be causing your mouth breathing, whether osteopathy can be of assistance in your case or whether a referral to a dentist, to your GP for further testing or an ear nose and throat specialist is required.
- Your osteopath may also recommend some home management to help train your nasal breathing, improve you breathing overall, assist in addressing allergies or other issues at the cause of your mouth breathing.