Department of Ear and Oral Diseases, Tampere University Hospital.
Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Diseases, Satakunta Central Hospital, Pori.
Eur J Orthod. 2019 May 24;41(3):316-321. doi: 10.1093/ejo/cjz009.
Paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is associated with a range of changes in craniofacial and occlusal development. There is, however, little knowledge of how early in life these changes can be found. The aim of the present study was to determine whether changes in dental arch morphology, occlusion, facial profile, tonsil size, breathing habit or body mass index (BMI) can already be found among 2.5-year-old children with OSAS.
Fifty-two children were recruited to the study. Of these, OSAS was diagnosed in 9 children and 18 children did not snore in polysomnography. These two groups were subsequently compared when evaluating polysomnographic, otorhinolaryngological and dental variables.
Children with OSAS had narrower inter canine width than non-snoring children (P = 0.032). Furthermore, children with OSAS had larger adenoid size with respect to the nasopharyngeal volume (P = 0.020) and more tendency to mouth breathing (P = 0.002). No statistically significant differences were found when comparing palatine tonsil size, occlusal characteristics, soft tissue profile measurements or BMI.
The limitation of the study is the small sample size.
Children with OSAS had narrower upper inter canine width than non-snoring children at the age of 2.5 years. Larger adenoid size and mouth breathing tendency were also more common among children with OSAS. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to determine if other changes in craniofacial and occlusal development can be found in this age group.
小儿阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停综合征（OSAS）与颅面和咬合发育的一系列变化有关。然而，对于这些变化在生命早期何时出现，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在确定在 2.5 岁患有 OSAS 的儿童中，是否已经可以发现牙弓形态、咬合、面型、扁桃体大小、呼吸习惯或体重指数（BMI）的变化。
本研究共招募了 52 名儿童。其中，9 名儿童被诊断为 OSAS，18 名儿童在多导睡眠图检查中没有打鼾。当评估多导睡眠图、耳鼻喉科和牙科变量时，将这两组进行比较。
OSAS 患儿的犬齿间宽度比不打鼾的儿童更窄（P = 0.032）。此外，OSAS 患儿的腺样体大小与鼻咽容积之比更大（P = 0.020），且更倾向于口呼吸（P = 0.002）。在比较腭扁桃体大小、咬合特征、软组织轮廓测量或 BMI 时，未发现统计学上的显著差异。
本研究的局限性在于样本量小。
2.5 岁时，患有 OSAS 的儿童的上犬齿间宽度比不打鼾的儿童更窄。OSAS 患儿的腺样体较大，且口呼吸倾向更为常见。需要进一步的研究来确定在这个年龄组是否可以发现颅面和咬合发育的其他变化。
