[Indicative factors of early facial aging in mouth breathing adults].

BACKGROUND Early facial aging in mouth breathing adults. AIM To verify the presence of indicative factors of early facial aging and to characterize the measurements of the projection of the nasogeniane fold to the tragus and of the face width in mouth and nose breathing adults. METHOD Aspects of early facial aging were observed in 60 individuals (presence of dark circles and wrinkles under the eyes, mentual wrinkles and mentual ridges). Measurements of the projection of the nasogeniane fold to the tragus and of the face width (distance between the buccinators) were taken using a digital caliper. Later, the volunteers were submitted to speech-language evaluations (anamneses and orofacial myofuntional assessment) and to an otolaryngology inspection in order to establish the diagnosis of mouth breathing (anamneses, clinical evaluation and video laryngoscopy). The obtained data were analyzed according to descriptive statistics and to the following statistic tests: Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Qui-square, Mann-Withney and the T-Student test for independent variables. Differences were considered significant when the p value was inferior to .05 and the accepted beta error was of .1. RESULTS The research sample consisted only of female volunteers. For the research group (mouth breathers) the age average was of 22.04 +/- 2.25 years and, for the control group (nose breathers) the age average was of 21.94 +/- 2.03 years. The presence of a high percentage of indicative factors of early facial aging was observed for the group of mouth breathers when compared to the group of nose breathers. Greater differences between the projections of the nasogenianos ridges in right and left side of the face was also observed for the group of mouth breathers. However, higher values of face widths were observed for the nose breathing individuals, configuring a discreetly more widened face in the cheek region. CONCLUSIONS In the present study there was a higher indication of early facial aging for the group of mouth breathers.