Comparison of mouth breathing proportions among 6-12-year-old children with large and normal adenoid attending Isfahan otorhinolaryngology clinics

Airway obstruction in the upper respiratory system for a long duration during the critical growth period of the face and jaws results in morphological changes in the head and face, the final outcome of which in some severe cases might be adenoid facies. The aim of this study was to compare mouth breathing among 6‒12-year-old children with large and normal adenoid.
In this observational-analytical study, 52 patients aged 6‒12 years were selected; 25 subjects had large adenoid, representing the case group, and 27 had normal adenoid, representing the control group. The subjects were asked to seat calm and breathe normally. The rate of air passing through the nose and mouth was recorded by a device separately. Data were analyzed with independent t-test (α = 0.05).
The mean breathing through the nose and mouth in the control (p value Children with adenoid hypertrophy exhibited more mouth breathing and less nasal breathing compared with children without adenoid hypertrophy.