Relation between maxillofacial form and respiratory disorders in children

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children is not rare and the importance of this obstruction during childhood is increasingly recognized. Children with OSA often have excessive daytime sleepiness, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, poor hearing, physical debilitation, and failure to thrive. The first choice for treatment of childhood OSAS is adenotonsillectomy; however, OSAS treatment with rapid maxillary expansion (RME) has also been suggested. Therefore, we present summaries of the following RME studies about the relation between maxillofacial form and respiratory disorders in children that showed the following: (i) RME improves nasal airway ventilation, suggesting that RME could contribute to treatment and prevention in children where OSAS is caused by nasal obstruction; (ii) Children with nasal airway obstruction have low tongue posture, and tongue posture improves when nasal airway obstruction is improved by RME; (iii) RME enlarges the pharyngeal airway. These effects of RME may contribute to treatment and prevention of childhood OSAS.