INTRODUCTION: Mouth breathing (MB) is an etiological factor for sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) during childhood. The habit of breathing through the mouth may be perpetuated even after airway clearance. Both habit and obstruction may cause facial muscle imbalance and craniofacial changes. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to propose and test guidelines for clinical recognition of MB and some predisposing factors for SDB in children. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 110 orthodontists regarding their procedures for clinical evaluation of MB and their knowledge about SDB during childhood. Thereafter, based on their answers, guidelines were developed and tested in 687 children aged between 6 and 12 years old and attending elementary schools. RESULTS: There was no standardization for clinical recognition of MB among orthodontists. The most common procedures performed were inefficient to recognize differences between MB by habit or obstruction. CONCLUSIONS: The guidelines proposed herein facilitate clinical recognition of MB, help clinicians to differentiate between habit and obstruction, suggest the most appropriate treatment for each case, and avoid maintenance of mouth breathing patterns during adulthood.
Guidelines proposal for clinical recognition of mouth breathing children
M. C. Pacheco,Camila Casagrande,Licia Pacheco Teixeira,N. S. Finck,Maria Teresa Martins de Araújo
Published 2015 in Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2015
- Venue
Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics
- Publication date
2015-07-01
- Fields of study
Medicine
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
CONCEPTS
- airway obstruction
A physical blockage in the breathing pathway that can underlie mouth breathing rather than a learned habit.
Aliases: obstruction
- elementary school children
Children aged 6 to 12 years attending elementary schools who were used to test the proposed guidelines.
- guidelines
Clinical guidelines developed from the interview findings to support recognition of mouth breathing in children.
- mouth breathing
A breathing pattern in which air is taken in through the mouth rather than the nose, considered here as a clinical habit or consequence of obstruction.
Aliases: MB
- orthodontists
Dental specialists whose clinical evaluation practices and knowledge about childhood sleep-disordered breathing were elicited in interviews.
- semi-structured interviews
An interview format used to collect orthodontists' reported procedures and knowledge in a nonrigid but guided way.
- sleep-disordered breathing
Breathing-related sleep disturbance in children, discussed here as a related pediatric condition associated with mouth breathing.
Aliases: SDB
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