Impact of the mouth breathing occurred during childhood in the adult age: biophotogrammetric postural analysis.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the mouth breathing occurred during childhood on the body posture in the adult age. METHODS: 24 adults, of both genders, aged from 18 to 30 years old with report of clinical manifestations of mouth breathing during the childhood composed the study group (SG). The control group (CG) was composed by 20 adults in the same age, without any respiratory problem since the childhood up to the present time. All the volunteers underwent a physiotherapeutic evaluation consisted of anamnesis and postural biophotogrammetry (SAPo v 0.68(®)). The comparison between the data of the SG and CG was accomplished by Student's t-test. RESULTS: The biophotogrammetric analysis demonstrated that the SG showed more forward head posture confirmed by the angles A9 (p = 0.0000) and CL (p = 0.0414) and also by the cervical distance (p = 0.0079). Additionally, this group presented a larger angular measure of the lumbar lordosis (p = 0.0141) compared to the CG. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that adults with mouth-breathing childhood have postural alterations, mainly in the head and lumbar column, which keeps for the whole life.