Nasopharyngeal reduction influence in facial morphology of preadolescents

Ary dos SANTOS-PINTO, Ricardo Fabris PAULIN, Ana Cláudia Moreira MELO, Lídia Parsekian MARTINS

The nasopharyngeal reduction consequent to a adenoid obstruction is reponsible to postural adaptions of the head, mandible, tongue and lips and may also lead to facial skeleton pattern alterations. Ninety-eight lateral cephalometric X-rays of 7 to 10 years old preadolescents were used considering the nasopharyngeal space width (NSW), that was correspondent to the minor distance between the soft palate and posterior nasopharyngeal wall. The radiographs were divided into 3 groups: Group I (narrow), NSW between 1.7 and 5.1mm; Group II (median), NSW between 5.2 and 7.6mm; Group III (extensive) NSW between 7.7 and 12.9mm. Two angular and six linear measurements were used to characterize the facial morphology. The means and standard deviations of each measurement were obtained and the ANOVA analysis showed no signiicant difference among the groups for A-Nperp, p = 0.07, Pg-Nperp, p = 0,058, mandible length, p = 0.98, facial axis, p = 0.96, lower facial height, p = 0.84 and signiicant difference for mandibular plane, p<0,01. So it can be concluded that the nasopharyngeal space reduction is associated with mandibular plane alterations that presented higher values when there was a nasopharyngeal space reduction

Keywords: Nasopharyngeal obstruction. Facial growth. Adenoid hypertrophy.

Saturday, May 04, 2024 00:03