The chin strap and the chin cushion are effective ways of keeping your mouth shut while you sleep.

But why is keeping my mouth shut, while I'm asleep, important in stopping my snoring?

These devices can help several types of snoring. Firstly they help mouth snorers by promoting nasal breathing. By changing from a mouth breather to a nasal breather many causes of snoring are eliminated. However this is simpler said than done.

For some mouth breathers using one of these products for the first time can feel claustrophobic. The urge to breathe through the mouth with the requirement to breathe through the nose can be quite disconcerting. If you are someone who breathes through the mouth simply because your nasal passages are too blocked then see our section on clearing a stuffy nose ; it will help. Used in conjunction with these techniques the chin strap or chin pillow can prove to be very effective.

These devices are effective for both mouth and nasal snoring because they support the jaw forward and that helps stop the tongue from falling back and constricting the airways of the throat.

A jaw supporting chin strap also has the added benefit of promoting nose breathing in mouth snorers and also retraining snorers to hold their tongue forward in their mouth. Over time this retraining will lead to the point where the device is no longer required.

These devices are relatively unobtrusive to wear. They have a lot less impact and much greater compliance than some other solutions like cpap or surgery. They do take a few nights to get used to, but most wearers find them comfortable as opposed to annoying.

The chin cushion has the added benefit of stopping the head from falling forward. By holding the head up the airways are held more open making it even easier to breathe. The chin cushion can be more annoying to wear than a chin strap. And some materials can be irritating if the snorer is also a restless sleeper.

Both these products are snoring aids. They can be, and are, helpful for many people. If you are trying to change the way you breathe to over come your snoring these can help, but you have to make the change, the aids wont do it all for you.

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