Abstract

COBO PLANA, Juan; DIAZ ESNAL, Belén; CARLOS VILLAFRANCA, Félix de  and  FERNANDEZ MONDRAGON, Mª Pilar. Orthodontics and upper airway . RCOE [online]. 2002, vol.7, n.4, pp.417-427. ISSN 1138-123X.

One of the general aims of orthodontic treatment and of the combination of orthodontics and orthognathic surgery is to achieve good occlusion and aesthetic improvement, above all in the case of severe dentoskeletal deformities. However, in many cases the parameters of the upper airway are not taken into account when fulfilling the aims of conventional treatment. Patients with obstructive alterations during sleep represent for the orthodontist a type of patient who differs from the normal one, for whom the treatment aims at improving oxygen saturation. Here, functional considerations prevail over the purely aesthetic ones. It is convenient, when making an orthodontic, surgical or mixed diagnosis of a patient, to bear in mind the implications concerning the upper airway (UA) that the treatment may involve. We cannot achieve good aesthetics at the expense of generating patients who are more prone to stenosing disorders of the UA. 

Keywords : Upper airway; Orthodontics; Orthognatic surgery; Sleep related disorders.