# Mouth Taping and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Small selected mouth-taping pilots report lower apnea indices; controlled evidence for tape alone remains insufficient, and closing a compensatory oral airway can worsen airflow.

The preregistered primary-subclaim rule selects SC2 Γ. Anatomical plausibility and uncontrolled positive clinical signals exist, but the exact tape-alone natural-sleep causal contrast is missing. The other three subclaims also return Γ, so the alternative aggregation rules do not change the nominal grade. CPAP-adjunct efficacy and wearable validation are retained as separate findings.

Baseline anatomy and severity are meaningful candidate boundaries, but a controlled tape-alone natural-sleep benefit has not been established and then prospectively mapped. Outcome-defined responders cannot be used to make the claim unfalsifiable. Device validation belongs to an explicit methodological companion section.