Dental malocclusion associated with mouth breathing in children from eastern Mexico City

Abstract

Mouth breathing syndrome, either by obstruction or as a matter of habit, produces serious alterations in the oral cavity, affecting the child both aesthetic, functional, and mentally. Therefore, a descriptive study was conducted in order to know the most frequent anomalies dent maxillofacial mouth-breathing children aged from 5 to 15, in the eastern area of Mexico City. Characteristic signs of a mouth breather were sought in 140 children who attended Zaragoza clinic showing problems of malocclusion. The clinical assessment was performed by observing: the presence or absence of large tonsils, dark circles, deep palate, lip incompetence and buccally erupted teeth, among others; in 85.7 % (n = 12) their parents reported that they slept with open mouth and 71.4 % (n = 10) of them snoring. Type I was the one that occurred more frequently.