The buccal corridor as a possible morphological risk indicator for sleep disordered breathing.

Objective: To explore a possible morphological relationship between buccal corridor, gingival display, transpalatal molar width, palatal height, and a cephalometric measurement (PV-A Line) as a risk indicator for sleep-disordered breathing.

Materials And Methods: Thirty subjects were enrolled. Full face maximum smile images and CBCT scans were taken. A Pearson correlation coefficient was used to identify any relationships between the variables.

Results: No correlations were identified between any of the variables investigated in this study as they relate to risk factors for sleep-disordered breathing.

Conclusions: The amount of buccal corridor space in relation to a patient's smile and the amount of gingival display does not appear to be a reliable metric in identifying certain morphological risk factors for sleep-disordered breathing.

Clinical Significance: Assessing the amount of buccal corridor space in relation to a smile does not appear to be a reliable predictor of morphological risk for certain risk factors of sleep-disordered breathing. In addition, utilizing the amount of gingival display in a patient's maximum smile does not appear to relate directly to risks in sleep-disordered breathing. Other tests and discovery may be necessary to identify these types of patients.