Craniofacial Deviations in the Children With Nasal Obstruction

Nasal obstruction mainly caused by adenoid hypertrophy in children affects the craniofacial growth and development process, and the craniofacial deviations and/or differences reported in the children are very similar to those in the adults with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The authors aimed to look for relationships of the linear craniofacial dimensions in the children suffering from nasal obstruction with age, degree of clinical nasal obstruction score (CNOS), and relative size of the adenoid mass within the nasopharynx in their study.Fifty-five children suffering from nasal obstruction were retrospectively enrolled, and clinical data was used to calculate CNOS. On the lateral cephalometric radiographies, 9 linear variables were measured and adenoidal-nasopharyngeal ratio (ANR) was calculated.The data presented that, not CNOS, but ANR shown decrease by age, while many skeletal variables with exception of the nasopharyngeal and adenoidal postero-anterior dimensions were increased by age. Further, it was found that while CNOS were negatively correlated with the anterior cranial base length, anterior-superior facial height, and maxillary depth, ANR disclosed significant correlation only with the anteriorsuperior facial height. The authors' results support that nasal obstruction in the children was related not only to the adenoidal hypertrophy. Although relative size of the adenoidal mass in relation to the nasopharynx decreased by age, nasal obstruction was still present. Further, these results support that craniofacial deviations and/or differences in the children with nasal obstruction is similar to the adult OSAS patients. Smaller dimensions related to the naso-maxillary complex in the children with more severe nasal obstruction appear to be continuous by age. Hence, it could be said that narrow naso-maxillary complex could contribute to proceed nasal obstruction by age, which may contribute to OSAS in the adults.