The effects of asthma on dental and facial deformities.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the study was to observe facial and teeth alterations in adult patients with asthma as opposed to a group who suffered from hypertension.

METHODS

All patients included in this cross-sectional observational study were interviewed to obtain clinical data. Patients also followed an orthodontic assessment using model-facial photographic and gypsum casts to diagnose malocclusion and dentofacial deformities. Asthmatic patients were divided in two groups according to asthma onset under or over 14 years of age.

RESULTS

A total of 61 asthmatics and 53 hypertensive patients were evaluated. Dental midline symmetry was significantly lower in asthmatics than in the hypertensive group (p = 0.006), whereas incompetent lip posture and open nasal lip angle were significantly more frequent in the asthmatic group than in the control group (p = 0.007 and 0.016, respectively). Asthmatics had more dental crossbite (p = 0.004), overbite (p = 0.01), overjet (p = 0.01), smaller inter bicuspids distance (p = 0.0009) and inter molar distance (p = 0.0001) than the control group. More crowding than diastems was observed in asthmatic patients. An association between the crossbite (p = 0.02) and maxillary crowding (p = 0.03) was also observed with the earlier age of asthma onset.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study lead us to note that dentofacial anomalies are related to asthma.