Mouth breathing generates many pathological adaptations in the orofacial structures and functions, such as alterations in the morphology of the hard palate. This structure actively participates in oral functions, deserving attention in the myofunctional orofacial evaluation, which have been increasingly using quantitative instruments. Even though the palate is difficult to be clinically assessed, little is known about the resources that can be used for quantitative evaluation of this structure. For this reason, we carried out this literature review, which had the aim to address the results of quantitative assessments of the palate of mouth breathers, as well as the instruments employed in these assessments. To this end, we reviewed national and international journals indexed in Medline, LILACS, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source (EBSCO) and HighWire Press databases between 1983 and 2009. Based on the results of the studies retrieved, we concluded that mouth breathing was more frequently associated to an increase in palatal depth, and less frequently to a decrease in palatal width. Furthermore, it was verified that palatal evaluations used different measurement instruments, based on palatal measures obtained from plaster casts, directly in the mouth, or in cephalometric radiographs. It is believed that the methods of quantitative assessment reviewed can contribute to a precise speech-language pathology diagnosis.
Palate, hard; Measures; Mouth breathing; Evaluation; Review
