New insights on age-related association between nasopharyngeal airway clearance and facial morphology.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relation between adenoid hypertrophy and facial morphology across age in a pediatric population. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION: The American University of Beirut Department of Otolaryngology. Two-hundred consecutive children (age 6.00 ± 2.62 years) referred from the Pediatric Otolaryngology unit to the Orthodontic division and requiring a lateral cephalogram for adenoid hypertrophy assessment. METHODS: Cephalometric measurements included relations among cranial base, maxilla and mandible, and airway clearance measured from adenoid to soft palate (AD). The children were classified into two age groups, Group 1: ≤ 6 years (n = 124) and Group 2: ≥ 6.01 years (n = 76), and also stratified in four subgroups (A, B, C, D) based on maxillo-mandibular divergence (palatal to mandibular plane angle, PP-MP): A- PP-MP ≤ 27.5°, n = 34; B- 27.5° < PP-MP ≤ 32°, n = 68; C- 32°