Abstract
We carried out an investigation based on a questionnaire concerning the actual status of mouth breathing in nursery school children. The questionnaire was composed of 53 questions regarding oral breathing. The questionnaire cards were distributed among parents of children aged 4 to 6 years, and 206 cards were collected (74.9% recovery). The results are summarized as follows.
1)46 children (22.8%) of all of the subjects had a habit of keeping their mouth open both in the daytime and while sleeping, and 89 children (44.2%) always closed their mouth all day. We considered that the former was mouth breathing children and the later was nose breathing children.
2)Mouth breathing children demonstrated many significant differences from nose breathing children: greater prevalence of nose pharynx disease, catching a cold, lip and mouth drying, relaxation of lips and turned upper lip, errors in hearing, anterior malocclusion, unskillful chewing and swallowing, and stooping.
3)There were no significant differences in the prevalence of pacifier use and weaning time between mouth breathing children and nose breathing children.
