Acoustic rhinometry in mouth breathing patients: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION When there is a change in the physiological pattern of nasal breathing, mouth breathing may already be present. The diagnosis of mouth breathing is related to nasal patency. One way to access nasal patency is by acoustic rhinometry. OBJECTIVE To systematically review the effectiveness of acoustic rhinometry for the diagnosis of patients with mouth breathing. METHODS Electronic databases LILACS, MEDLINE via PubMed and Bireme, SciELO, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Science Direct, from August to December 2013, were consulted. 11,439 articles were found: 30 from LILACS, 54 from MEDLINE via Bireme, 5558 from MEDLINE via PubMed, 11 from SciELO, 2056 from Web of Science, 1734 from Scopus, 13 from PsycInfo, 1108 from CINAHL, and 875 from Science Direct. Of these, two articles were selected. RESULTS The heterogeneity in the use of equipment and materials for the assessment of respiratory mode in these studies reveals that there is not yet consensus in the assessment and diagnosis of patients with mouth breathing. CONCLUSION According to the articles, acoustic rhinometry has been used for almost twenty years, but controlled studies attesting to the efficacy of measuring the geometry of nasal cavities for complementary diagnosis of respiratory mode are warranted.