Mouth Breathing

Mouth Breathing Through the Lens of Germanic New Medicine

A teeth-and-jaw perspective that starts with biology, conflict, and the two-phase rhythm

In Germanic New Medicine (GNM/GHK), mouth breathing is not treated as a “bad habit” to correct with willpower. It’s viewed as a functional adaptation that often appears when the nose is temporarily compromised by a Biological Special Program.

So instead of asking, “How do I stop mouth breathing?” GNM asks:

What made nasal breathing difficult in the first place, and what phase is the body in right now?

Quick note: This article is written strictly from a GNM perspective. If you or your child has severe breathing issues, pauses in breathing during sleep, blue lips, high fever, dehydration, or distress, seek medical support immediately.

The GNM foundation: every program has two phases

GNM describes a predictable two-phase pattern:

1. Conflict-active phase (stress phase)

2. Healing phase (repair phase) after conflict resolution

Healing tends to bring swelling, inflammation, discharge, fatigue, pain, and “symptoms” that can look like illness, but in GNM are interpreted as repair. 

This matters for mouth breathing because many people breathe through the mouth not when the conflict is active, but when the nose becomes blocked during healing.

The nose and sinuses in GNM: “scent conflict”

GNM links the nasal mucosa and paranasal sinuses to a scent conflict (“this stinks,” “I can’t stand that smell,” or a figurative sense of something that feels unpleasant, threatening, or “smells like trouble”). 

Conflict-active phase often unnoticeable

In the conflict-active phase, GNM describes ulceration (cell loss) of the nasal mucosa with the biological purpose of widening the nasal passages to enhance the sense of smell. Symptoms can include a dry nose and crusting with a hanging conflict. 

Healing phase (when mouth breathing often shows up)

After the conflict is resolved, the tissue is replenished. In GNM this repair process can create swelling, congestion, mucus/discharge, reduced smell/taste, headaches, fatigue, and fever depending on intensity. 

When the nose swells and blocks airflow in healing, the body does something practical:

It opens the mouth to keep oxygen moving.

In this view, mouth breathing is often a temporary workaround during nasal healing, not a character flaw.

Why mouth breathing becomes “chronic” according to GNM

If mouth breathing is happening night after night, GNM would consider the possibility of:

1) A hanging healing phase due to repeated conflict relapses (“tracks”)

GNM uses the concept of tracks (triggers that reactivate the original conflict perception). When the person repeatedly re-encounters the trigger, the program can keep cycling, prolonging congestion and keeping mouth breathing in place. 

2) Multiple overlapping programs in the airway region

It’s common for the “nose program” to overlap with programs in the throat, pharynx, or lymphatic tissue, which can amplify swelling and obstruction during healing. 

GNM would not try to “fix the mouth” first. It would ask:

What keeps reactivating the original scent conflict, and what is the track?

The mouth, throat, tonsils, and adenoids in GNM: “morsel themes”

In a teeth-and-jaw project, this is where it gets especially relevant.

Mouth-and-throat tissues under morsel-related conflicts: not being able to catch a morsel, not being able to swallow it, not being able to get rid of it, not being allowed to eat, wanting something and not wanting it, and similar variations depending on the tissue. 

Tonsils/adenoids and airway obstruction

GNM materials list tonsillar hypertrophy and tonsillitis within a morsel-conflict grouping related to mouth/pharynx submucosa. 

From this perspective, enlarged tonsils/adenoids that contribute to mouth breathing aren’t random. They are read as part of a biological program with a morsel theme—often showing up in family dynamics, pressure around eating, “having to swallow something,” or situations that feel hard to accept or hard to spit out (literally or symbolically).

How this ties into teeth and jaw

Even though mouth breathing is an airway behavior, it changes the environment of the mouth:

• dry mouth during sleep

• altered tongue posture and open-mouth resting position

• more irritation of oral mucosa and throat

• more “mouth symptoms” that can show up as separate programs (ulcers, sore throat, salivary duct pain, etc.) 

In GNM terms, that means the teeth-and-jaw picture can become layered: a nasal healing program drives mouth breathing, and then oral/throat programs can appear around dryness, irritation, swallowing themes, and repeated tracks.