Impact of the Habit of Mouth Breathing on the Development of the Stomatognathic System- Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction: Mouth breathing is a syndrome characterized by the exclusive passage of air through the oral cavity because of a pathological condition due to nasal, pharyngeal, or habitus obstruction. Objective: To analyze the impact of mouth breathing habit on the development of the stomatognathic system. Materials and Methods: Search through PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, Web of Science (WOS) and Google Scholar, it is a qualitative approach research, documentary bibliographic type, cross-sectional, retrospective in the search, descriptive-analytical design and deductive method; following inclusion and exclusion criteria, 49 articles were included. Analysis and Discussion of Results: Obstructive, inflammatory and functional factors are associated with mouth breathing; mirror test, butterfly and water retention test characterize the mouth breather ; they present adenoid facies, skeletal class II, narrow upper dental arch, anterior open bite, lip incompetence and tongue in a lower position than usual, gingival inflammation, dental caries, halitosis, obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, alteration of phonemes and masticatory deficiency; the use of steroids, antibiotics, antiallergic drugs, surgical treatment, speech therapy and myofunctional therapy are the standard therapy. Conclusion: Mouth breathers present skeletal, facial, oral and soft tissue changes and associated pathologies; their treatment will depend on their etiology.