The honest answer, from someone who has tried both: for me, nasal strips made the bigger difference. Mouth tape kept my mouth shut, but it left me with a dry mouth and a disturbed feeling in the morning. Nasal strips opened my airway and let me actually sleep, especially important because I have a deviated septum.
I get asked this question almost every week. Mouth tape has had a big moment on social media, and people want to know whether it is a cheaper, better alternative to a nasal strip. I have tested both properly, not for one or two nights, but consistently, and what follows is what I learned from running the experiment on myself before I started Ventriq.
What Nasal Strips and Mouth Tape Are Actually Trying to Do
Even though they get lumped together online, these two products solve completely different problems.
Nasal strips physically open the nose. The spring inside the strip pulls the sides of your nasal valves outward, widening the narrowest part of your upper airway. They fix airflow at the source.
Mouth tape does not open anything. It seals your mouth shut to force you to breathe through your nose. It changes behaviour, and it assumes your nose is already working well.
That single distinction is the reason one of them worked for me and the other did not.
My Experience With Mouth Tape
I gave mouth tape a fair run. I tried a few of the better known brands, applied them correctly, and stuck with it for a few weeks. A few things stood out:
- My mouth was bone dry every morning. Even though tape is supposed to keep moisture in, I was waking up with a parched throat and tongue.
- I felt disturbed when I woke up. Something about not being able to open my mouth instinctively put my body on edge. I was not waking up rested.
- My deviated septum made it worse. Because one side of my nose is partially blocked, sealing my mouth meant relying entirely on a narrowed airway. On a bad allergy night, that is genuinely uncomfortable.
To be fair, mouth tape is not a bad product for everyone. But if your nose has any restriction at all, taping your mouth does not fix the problem. It hides it.
My Experience With Nasal Strips
When I switched to nasal strips the difference was immediate. I could feel my airway open the second I put one on. The biggest changes for me:
- I slept through the night more consistently
- No more dry mouth in the morning, because I was not being forced into a single breathing pattern
- The disturbed feeling from tape was gone, nothing was sealed shut, nothing felt restricted
- On allergy nights, the strip did not magically clear my congestion, but it gave me enough extra airway to actually fall asleep
That experience is what eventually convinced me to start Ventriq. I could not find a strip that combined the right lift strength, multiple sizes, and an adhesive that did not irritate my skin, so I set out to make one.
Why a Deviated Septum Changes the Answer
Here is the part most comparison articles miss. If you have a deviated septum, and roughly 80% of people technically do, even if mildly, nasal strips and mouth tape are not interchangeable. They are addressing different ends of the airway.
A deviated septum is a structural problem inside the nose. Sealing your mouth does not change how much air can travel through a partially blocked nasal valve. A nasal strip, on the other hand, mechanically widens that exact bottleneck. That is why strips made such a difference for me personally, and it is why I would always reach for a strip first if I knew the person had any structural narrowing. For the full story on deviated septum and sleep, see our article on deviated septum keeping you awake.
Can You Use Them Together?
Yes, and some people do. The logic is reasonable: open the nose with a strip, then keep the mouth closed with tape to lock in nasal breathing. I tried this combination too. Honestly, for me, the strip alone did the job. Once my nose was properly open I naturally stopped mouth breathing. Adding tape on top just reintroduced the dry mouth issue I had been trying to escape. If your problem is purely behavioural, a clear nose but a habit of falling open at night, then layering might help. If your problem is airflow, the strip is doing all the real work.
Which One Should You Actually Try First?
My recommendation, based on testing both on myself:
- Start with a nasal strip if your nose ever feels blocked, you snore, you wake up with a dry mouth, you have allergies, or you suspect a deviated septum.
- Mouth tape is worth trying if your nose works well already and you just want to break a habit of falling open at night.
- If in doubt, the strip is the lower risk experiment. Nothing is sealed shut, you can remove it instantly, and you are treating the cause rather than masking it.
I designed Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips for exactly the people I kept hearing from: light snorers, mouth breathers, allergy sufferers, and anyone with a slightly restricted nose. Flexible lift, hypoallergenic adhesive, and multiple sizes, the combination I could not find in one product when I was running my own experiment. For more on how to get the most out of nasal strips at night, see our guide on the best nasal strips for sleeping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are nasal strips and mouth tape doing the same thing?
No. Nasal strips open the nose by mechanically widening the nasal valves. Mouth tape seals the mouth to force nasal breathing. One fixes airflow at the source, the other changes behaviour. They are not interchangeable.
Is it safer to use nasal strips than mouth tape?
For most people, nasal strips carry less risk because nothing is sealed shut. Mouth tape requires a clear, healthy nasal airway. If your nose is blocked from congestion, allergies, or a deviated septum, mouth tape can leave you without an easy backup route to breathe.
What works better if you have a deviated septum?
From my own experience with a deviated septum, nasal strips made a bigger difference than mouth tape. A strip widens the narrowest part of the nasal airway, which is exactly where a deviated septum causes problems. Tape does not address that bottleneck at all.
Can mouth tape cause dry mouth?
It did for me. Despite the claim that taping keeps moisture in, I consistently woke up with a dry mouth and throat after using it. I never had that problem with a nasal strip.
The Bottom Line
Nasal strips open your airway. Mouth tape assumes your airway is already open. If you are unsure which problem you have, start with the strip.
Try Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips and find out what better breathing actually feels like.
