Mouth tics are unwanted movements and/or sounds that occur in or around the mouth. They can be painful and affect daily life, especially around eating and breathing.
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Mouth tics can occur in a number of ways
Do you experience any of these?
- Mouth stretching
- Teeth grinding and/or chattering
- Tongue-related, such as clicking or wriggling
- Lip pouting
- Kissing- people or things
- Lip biting
- Biting things or people
- Whistling
- Smiling or frowning
- Hissing
- Humming
- Spitting
- Vocal tics– such as shouting and swearing
- Gasping and breathing
- Jaw– moving and clicking
Tics can affect breathing
Tics can be exhausting. Motor tics can be physically demanding, to the point the sufferer becomes out of breath. Tics may also manifest as an urge to breathe a certain way, speed up or slow down breathing or even hold breath in.
This can be scary to the individual, and a cause for concern to parents of a child with these tics.
Eating with tics
Tics can lead to spilling food and drink, a difficulty swallowing and a risk of choking.
It is very important for family members to seek advice if a child is displaying such behaviours. There is an increased risk of choking with mouth tics, and addressing tic-like behaviour is important.