Introduction: Difficult nasal breathing is the condition where there is a partial or full, temporary or permanent obstruction of the airways and the processes of inhalation and exhalation are carried out through the mouth.
Aim: The aim of this paper is to define and analyse the reasons for mouth breathing among children with primary and mixed dentition.
Materials and Methods: A total of 1 667 children between the ages 3 and 12 years were examined. We used the methods of anterior and posterior rhinoscopy, acoustic rhinometry, and rhinomanometry
Results: Among all the studied mouth-breathing children with deciduous dentition, the main reason for the difficult nasal breathing was allergic rhinitis. The children with first degree of obstruction predominated (54.50%), The second cause in this studied age group was adenoid hypertrophy. In early mixed dentition, the percentage distribution of second and third degree of obstruction was the same (45.70%). In the early mixed dentition, the most common cause of difficult nasal breathing was adenoid hypertrophy. The percentage of children in late mixed dentition who were with adenoid hypertrophy was lower.
Conclusion: The main reason for difficult nasal breathing in primary dentition is allergic rhinitis, but in early mixed dentition it is adenoid hypertrophy. Our results showed that of all the children with difficult nasal breathing 24% had first degree of nasal obstruction, 39.30% had second degree, followed by 36.70% children with third degree.
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