Clinical characterization of mouth opening among Mexican adolescents and young adults.

Objective: To estimate two mouth opening (MO) assessments in a sample of apparently healthy Mexican adolescents and young adults, in the context of age and sex. Material and Methods: We examined in a cross-sectional study 254 subjects 14 to 24 years old to ascertain the maximum MO (MMO) and the assisted maximum MO (AMMO) using a ruler (Scala). The measured mouth opening capacities were not adjusted by adding the vertical overlap between arches (overbite). Clinical oral examinations were undertaken by four standardized examiners. Statistical analyses included Student?s t-test and linear regression modeling. Results: Mean age was 16.762.39 years and 53% of the 254 participants were men. Overall mean MMO was 46.617.37 mm (minimum 28, maximum 69), and AMMO was 49.486.59 mm (minimum 32, maximum 75). Age had no identifiable relationship with MMO or AMMO but we observed that the mean difference between men and women in MMO and AMMO was 3.29 mm (p<0.001) and 3.16 mm (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusions: Besides finding that Mexican young males have higher mean maximum mouth opening than females, the present study offers some of the first anthropometric outline relevant to orthodontic, prosthetic/prosthodontic developmental calculations for an important parameter of normal mandible/ maxilla function among Hispanics/Mexicans.