The effect of the perforated vestibular screen on nasal respiration.

Abstract

The effect of the vestibular screen on naso-respiratory capacity over a period of four months was analysed in 29 children with increased oral respiration. Rhinoscopic and rhinomanometric examination showed severe to moderate nasal impairment in 51.7% of the cases, primarily due to nasal mucosal congestion and not to skeletal stenosis or adenoid enlargement. Insertion of the screen provoked a nasal-vasomotor reaction, leading to reduction of the nasal air flow. This effect persisted, but at a reduced level, after four months of treatment. At the end of the study 34.5% of the patients showed a reduced nasal flow and 44.8% showed an increased nasal respiratory capacity. Treatment with the vestibular screen is most likely to produce an increase in nasal air flow rate in children with severe nasal mucosal congestion who have a small nasal air flow rate at rest, increased potential for nasal mucosal decongestion, and a small reduction in nasal air flow rate after insertion of the appliance. Treatment of patients with mixed breathing but unimpaired nasal respiratory capacity with a vestibular screen may impair the existing nasal breathing.