Association between Mouth Breathing Habit and Dental Caries-A Retrospective Study
Author(s): Ushanthika T and Sowmya K*
Abstract
Introduction: Mouth breathing is an unnatural act of necessity to get air into the lungs through the mouth when the primary airway is blocked by nasal, nasopharyngeal such as enlarged adenoids, enlarged tonsils, rhinitis, nasal septal deviation, sinusitis, turbinate hypertrophy and nasal polyp. During mouth breathing, there is loss of saliva and dryness of the mouth and this can increase the risk of tooth decay and inflammation of the gingiva. Aim of the study: The aim of the present study was to find an association between mouth breathing and the presence of dental caries. Methodology: A retrospective analysis of all the cases with mouth breathing and their dental caries history among out-patients was retrieved among the overall data of patients visiting Saveetha Dental College from June 2020-March 2021. The data for 1206 patients of age group 10-20 years was collected and entered in excel spread sheets. And the collected data was analysed using SPSS software version 21.0. Chi square test was used to statistically evaluate the results. The level of significance was set at P<0.05. Results: In this study, the patients seen in the 10-15 years age group were (29.15%), (20.18%) in the age group of 14-16 years and 50.67% in the 17-20 age group. There was more number of male patients (58.65%) than female patients (41.35 %). When presence of dental caries and mouth breathing habit was analysed, Chi square test was found to be not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Within the limits of this study, no significant association was found between dental caries experience and mouth breathing. Although the relationship between mouth breathing and medical conditions and certain oral conditions seems to be well established, it is difficult to assess in all cases from the literature data, the exact link between the caries experience and mouth breathing. So, more studies are needed to explore a causal relationship since many studies have failed to find associations between mouth breathing and caries risk or salivary patterns.