A study on the relationship between mouth breathing and facial morphological pattern

SummaryBreathing is responsible for facial and cranial morphology development.Aiminvestigate in order to see if there is any relationship between oral breathing and facial type.Material and Methods119 male and female teenagers, with ages ranging between 15 and 18 years. The sample was separated in two groups: A-50 teenage oral breathers, 28 males and 22 females; and group B- 69 teenage nasal breathers, 37 males and 32 females. The sample was collected at the Centro de Atendimento e Apoio ao Adolescente do Departamento de Pediatria da UNIFESP/ EPM. We evaluated breathing and facial measures.Resultsby means of anthropometric indexes we classified facial types and associated them with the person’s breathing type, Hypereuriprosopic (Total=0; oral breathers 0%; nasal breathers 0%; Euriprosopic (Total=14; oral breathers 2.52%, nasal breathers 9.24%;Mesoprosope (Total=20; oral breathers 19.32%; nasal breathers 21.01%, Leptoprosopic (Total=37; oral breathers 14.29%; nasal breathers 16.81%; Hyperleptoprosopic (Total =48; oral breathers 5.89% nasal breathers 10.92%). The mesoprosopic facial type was found in 48 teenagers (40.33%) of whom 25 (21.01%) were oral breathers and 23 (19.32%) were nasal breathers. Conclusion: it was not possible to prove the existence of an association between oral breathing and facial type.