The Power of Proper Tongue Placement: Why You Should Keep Your Tongue on the Roof of Your Mouth

Did you know that a small, often overlooked part of your body can have a significant impact on your overall health and well-being? That's right; we're talking about your tongue. Specifically, the way you position your tongue in your mouth can play a crucial role in various aspects of your life, from your oral health to your breathing and even your facial structure. Keeping your tongue on the roof of the is a habit that can have far-reaching benefits.

1. Improved Breathing

One of the most significant benefits of maintaining proper tongue posture is improved breathing. When your tongue rests against the roof of your mouth, it helps to create the ideal space for airflow through your nasal passages. Proper nasal breathing is essential for several reasons:

• Filters Air: The nose acts as a natural air filter, trapping dust, allergens, and harmful particles before they reach your lungs.

• Regulates Airflow: Nasal breathing helps regulate the amount of air you take in, ensuring that you get the right balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

• Boosts Oxygenation: Nasal breathing ensures that oxygen is properly humidified and warmed before it enters your lungs, improving oxygenation of your blood.

• Promotes Relaxation: Breathing through your nose activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and reducing stress.

• Slows Down breathing. Breathing slow and deep through the nose helps proper gas exchange to take place in the alveoli and absorb oxygen in the body’s tissues and organs.

2. Enhanced Oral and Dental Health

Proper tongue posture is also closely linked to oral and dental health. When your tongue rests on the roof of your mouth, it naturally exerts gentle pressure on your teeth. This pressure can help maintain proper alignment and prevent dental issues such as overcrowding and malocclusion (misalignment of the upper and lower teeth). Additionally, having your tongue in the correct position can prevent issues like tongue thrust, which can contribute to speech problems and orthodontic issues.

3. Facial Development and Appearance

The way you position your tongue can influence the development of your facial structure. Consistently keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth can contribute to proper facial development, particularly in children. This practice can help promote well-defined jawlines, high cheekbones, and a more attractive facial appearance.

4. Improved Swallowing Patterns

Many people develop unhealthy swallowing patterns over time, which can lead to problems like tongue thrust, speech difficulties, protruded or crowded teeth, and set back of the jaws. Proper tongue posture encourages the development of a healthy swallowing pattern, where the tongue moves upward and backward during swallowing, preventing issues and promoting proper oral muscle function.

5. Reduced Risk of Sleep Apnea and Snoring

Sleep apnea and snoring are often related to improper tongue posture during sleep. When the tongue falls backward and blocks the airway, it can lead to breathing disruptions during sleep. Training yourself to maintain proper tongue posture during the day can help reduce the risk of sleep-related breathing issues, leading to better sleep quality and overall health.

6. Improves Head and Body posture

Keeping the tongue on the roof of the mouth with the back third of the tongue engaged can help prevent forward head posture and stand up straight. People who sit and stand up straight can breathe better, look more confident, and have an overall better health avoiding forward head posture related problems.

7. Keeps Jaw Joints Problems at bay

Holding the tongue on the roof of the mouth in suction at any time when you are not speaking, eating, drinking, laughing, or using your mouth at all helps the teeth to stay biting together and therefore your jaw joints in their natural closed position. When tongue is held down during the day and during night time, teeth are not biting together, therefore mouth is slightly open and the jaws are left in their open position. When that is happening for a long time then the jaw joints reposition themselves and it becomes very difficult to put them back. People with jaw joint issues can have a multitude of symptoms ranging from tension, headaches, clicking or cracking noise in the jaw joints to various levels of pain making it difficult to eat, yawn, and chew.

8. Helps proper Eruption of the Teeth

When tongue is held on the roof of the mouth at rest and pressing against the palate when swallowing and not held between the teeth or thrusting helps to guide eruption of the teeth into the right place in the mouth. When tongue is held low as a habit or between the teeth they can erupt in a wrong place, erupt on top of each other, create crowding, erupt at an angle, or turned, do not fully erupt, or not erupt at all staying buried in the bone.

TIPS ON HOW TO SUCK THE TONGUE UP ON THE ROOF OF THE MOUTH

Put your lips together and teeth together. Place the tip of the tongue on the incisive papilla which is located on the hard palate about 1-2mm behind your upper front teeth. Feel that the tip of the tongue is not pressing against the front teeth. Press the rest of the tongue against the roof the mouth so the back third of the tongue is in contact with the soft palate at the back. Keep pressing the tongue against the palate so there is no gap between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, and the air and saliva is pushed or pulled out

from there. After all the air is pulled out you can focus on applying the same pulling force to direct the remaining saliva in the mouth to the back of the tongue that would go on straight on it and can be easily swallowed without removing the tongue from the palate or having the need to swipe the saliva up from under the tongue and the cheeks area. Make sure that the tongue is pressed against the palate without pressing against the teeth anywhere in the mouth. That way you will get used to hold the tongue up without damaging the gums or biting on the sides of the tongue. The more air and saliva you will remove, while the air would simply get pushed out

and swallowing the saliva down, the more you would feel like a vacuum is building up in the mouth making the tongue stick against the roof of the mouth. This technique is very helpful to use right before going to sleep that could help keep the tongue up in suction through the night. When you learn a proper tongue placement against the roof of the mouth you can get used to create a tongue suction at any time when your mouth is not being used for eating, talking, drinking, or laughing, etc.

---

CONCLUSION

While it may seem like a small and inconsequential habit, keeping your tongue on the roof of your mouth has far-reaching implications for your health and well-being. From improved breathing and oral health to enhanced facial development and reduced risk of sleep apnoea, proper tongue posture can make a significant difference in your life. So, start paying attention to where your tongue rests, and make an effort to keep it in the right place. Your body will thank you for it!