Findings of multiprofessional evaluation of mouth breathing children

PURPOSE: to describe orofacial myofunctional findings, as well as the main otolaryngological, allergological and orthodontic problems found in mouth breathing children. METHODS: 502 medical charts from the Mouth Breathing Outpatient Clinic from Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais were analyzed. The subjects were aged between 2 and 12 years (median 6.0 years) and, about genders, 289 (57.6%) were male and 213 (42.4%) were female. The data collected was regarding general anamnesis, speech-language pathology evaluation, as well as the relevant parts of otolaryngological, allergological and orthodontic assessments. Data was submitted to statistical analysis. RESULTS: at anamnesis, significant prevalence of maintaining the mouth opened (98.0%), snoring (89.9%) and nocturnal drooling (68.6%) was observed. Allergologic evaluation showed positive skin test (59.0%) and rhinitis (57.8%) and otolaryngological assessment revealed hypertrophic adenoids (91.7%) and tonsils (72.6%) and changed nasal mucosa (60.3%). The findings on orthodontic evaluation were malocclusion (86.8%), convex facial profile (62.9%) and overbite (55.5%). Data from speech-language pathology assessment indicated inappropriate usual lips position (70.5%), facial changes in lips (65.4%) and tongue (64.4%) strength, high hard palate (57.1%), altered nasolabial angle (57.0%) and asymmetry (55.0%). CONCLUSION: alterations were found on the evaluations made by all professionals, confirming the huge impact of mouth breathing on quality of life of those children, and therefore the need for multidisciplinary treatment for these patients.