PURPOSE: to check the relation between oral breathing etiology and hearing disorders. METHODS: 97 files were collected from the Mouth Breather Center at UNIFESP. The etiologies had been classified as Tonsils hypertrophy (pharnyx and palatine), Atopy, Atopy associated to hypertrophy and Functional. Tonal and bone thresholds, respectively, in the frequencies from 250 to 8 kHz and from 500 to 4 kHz above 20 dB NA; the gap between these thresholds -above 10 dB; deviated tympanic curve from -100 dapa, had been considered as a criteria to set up hearing disorder. According to the tonal thresholds, the hearing losses have been classified as mild or moderate. The tympanograms have been classified as: type A -normality, type B -media otitis and type C - tube dysfunction. RESULTS: normal hearing was present in 79.5% of atopic patients, in 61,8% in the ones with both, atopy and hypertrophy, and in the individuals with hypertrophy it was observed in 57.7%. Every patient with functional etiology had presented normal hearing. Through the data correlation between etiologies and immittance thresholds, it was verified that in atopic individuals there was a prevalence of type C curve (29.5 %). When atopic individuals had hypertrophy, the prevalent curve was B (32.4%) and in individuals with hypertrophy, it was observed both types B and C with an identical prevalence of 21,8%. All the functional oral breathers showed a tympanometrical curve. CONCLUSION: it can be verified that most oral breathers don't have hearing loss, but individuals with hypertrophy showed higher prevalence of hearing disorder.
Mouth Breathing; Audiometry; Acoustic Impedance Tests
