Abstract
ABSTRACT Purpose: to review, in an integrative manner, studies using surface electromyography in the orofacial and cervical musculature in mouth breathing children aged from three to 11 years and 11 months old. Methods: the survey was conducted in national and international databases, from 1998 to 2018, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Review articles, dissertations, book chapters, case studies and editorials were excluded. Results: 86 articles were found, 14 of which met the inclusion criteria. Most of these studies used surface electromyography to assess and describe the muscle condition of the mouth breathing population. Only one study addressed the influence of myofunctional speech therapy and two studies included physical therapy treatment, using electromyographic evaluation before and after the intervention. Given the main categories of analysis, the discussion was based on the year, state of publication and journal, sample size, scientific methodology, muscles assessed, assessment protocols used and the results of the publications. Conclusions: surface electromyography has been used mainly in the initial assessment of orofacial and postural myofunctional changes caused by mouth breathing and not as a therapeutic biofeedback, thus, it is important to conduct longitudinal studies using this instrument in mouth breathers.
Highlights
Nasal breathing plays an important role in the quality of life of humans, as it promotes the filtration, heating and humidification of inspired air in order to reach the lungs in an optimum temperature[1]
The literature indicates that any factor that leads to an upper airway (UA) obstruction, such as septum deviation, pharyngeal or palatine tonsil hypertrophy[3], or even due to sagging on speech organs and simple parafunctional habits, causes nasal breathing to be replaced by mouth breathing[4]
An integrative review study was conducted in order to analyze the available scientific evidence, both in the speech-language pathology literature as in other health areas, on the use of sEMG in mouth breathing children upon the following questions: “What is the purpose of using surface electromyography in orofacial and cervical muscles in mouth breathing children?”
Summary
Nasal breathing plays an important role in the quality of life of humans, as it promotes the filtration, heating and humidification of inspired air in order to reach the lungs in an optimum temperature[1] This type of breathing favors the craniofacial growth as well as the development of the individual and the proper functioning of stomatognathic functions[2]. As a public health problem, it has generated greater scientific interest in recent years in other health areas due to the multidisciplinary aspects involved[6] Areas such as otorhinolaryngology, dentistry and speech-language pathology associate mouth breathing with nasal, dental and orofacial motricity aspects[7].
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