PURPOSE: the purpose is to evaluate, through the chewing sequence of an Optosil artificial "tablet", the masticatory performance in nasal breathing and mouth breathing. METHOD: we attended sixty dentate subjects aged 14-22 year old. An Optosil "tablet" was supplied to each participant, who executed 20 masticatory cycles, the Optosil fragments had been placed in a column with seven bolters, and the retained particles were weighed on a precision analytical balance and the masticatory efficiency value was calculated. The gotten data were submitted to the descriptive analysis and inferential analysis (test T and ANOVA). RESULTS: the nasal breathing and mouth breathing groups were composed by 30 young people each, with a mean age of 17.87 and 17.83 year old, respectively. Regarding gender, the females predominated in the mouth breathing group and the males in the nasal breathing group. The five most prevalent diagnoses in the mouth breathing group were adenoid hypertrophy, allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, asthma and tonsillar hypertrophy. Finally, when we carried out the t test, there was no statistical difference in masticatory performance in mouth breathing and nasal breathing (p> 0.05). CONCLUSION: it was concluded that the breathing pattern was not a determining factor in the masticatory efficiency.
Mastication; Efficiency; Mouth Breathing
