A study of three-dimensional facial morphology for mouth breathing children
Objective:This study used 3D scanning technology to explore the morphological characteristics of the facial soft tissue in mouth-breathing children.Methods:81 children aged 10-12 years were included in this study,of whom 42 were of mouth breathing,and 39 used nasal breathing.3dMD Face system was used to obtain three-dimensional facial images,and a total of 18 measurement val-ues were obtained,including linear distances,angles,and ratios.Subjects were grouped by gender.Measures were compared using In-dependent sample t-test and Mann Whitney u-test,and binomial logistic regression was used to verify the correlation between facial fea-tures and breathing patterns.Results:For males,mouth breathing had significantly smaller nasolabial angle compared with nasal breathing(P<0.05).Regarding the female group,mouth breathing compared to their nasal breathing counterpart had significantly de-creased values in the mandibular width;the ratio of the mandibular width to the sum of the upper facial height,and the upper and lower lip height;and the ratio of the mandibular width to the sum of the upper and lower lip height(P<0.01).Besides significantly increased value in the ratio of lip width to mandibular width(P<0.05).Logistic regression results showed that nasolabial angle,and mandibular width were correlated with mouth breathing(P<0.05).Conclusions:Mouth-breathing children showed narrower mandibular width and more protruded upper lip.