• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.242-248
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• 2015

Maximum mouth opening is regarded as an important tool used to evaluate the clinical function of temporomandibular joint and the masticatory system. It has been reported that children can also exhibit severe dysfunction or pain in some cases of temporomandibular disorder. The purpose of this study was to measure the normal maximum mouth opening in Korean children and to analyze the correlations between mouth opening and the associated factors. Maximum mouth opening was measured from 151 healthy children between the ages of 2 and 6 years old. Age, height, weight, and mouth width were also recorded. As a result, the mean maximum mouth-opening was $37.72{\pm}5.10mm$. While the values were greater in boys than in girls without statistical significance, the increases of maximum mouth opening based on age, height, weight, and mouth width were significant (p < 0.05). In children, positive correlation coefficients were observed between maximum mouth opening and the associated factors and height showed the highest correlation. In conclusion, we collected data of the normal range of maximum mouth opening in Korean children, and this study can be utilized as a basis in diagnosing pediatric temporomandibular disorder and safety standard of mouth opening during dental procedures.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.101-108
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• 2005

Children are in mixed dentition during 6 years after 3 years old. this time is very important for sound permanent dentition. There are many factors of influence to tooth eruption stage ; adjacent teeth, tooth resorption, early loss or retention of deciduous tooth, local lesion, lip and tongue, masticatory muscles, ect. These factors should be in balance, if not, relation of adjacent teeth is changed, then severe malocclusion is occurred maybe. These cases revealed influences of resin bonded metal splint on occlusal surface of children's molar to mixed dentition. Splints interfere with falling off of deciduous tooth, tooth eruption, normal occlusion formation, and development of mixed dentition and occlusion. Therefore we removed the metal splint from teeth, follow-up checked occlusion and tooth eruption.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.593-599
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• 2001

Recently, tempormandibular disorder(TMD) shows an tendency to increase every year. TMD is a collective term embracing a number of clinical problems that involve the masticatory musculature, temporomandibular joint(TMJ) and associated structures, or both. TMD, viewed in distribution of age, often occurred from late teens to late twenties. But recently, the age of occurrence tends to be lower. Accordingly, early diagnosis of tempormandibular disorder is very important. In this study, we measured the maximum mouth opening which is simple and easy to carry out as a way of TMD diagnosis. In this study, the maximum mouth opening was examined for 1,775 children from 4 to 12 years of age. We compared the relationship between the maximum mouth opening with the age, height, and weight. The results obtained were summarized as follows; 1. The mean maximum mouth openings of 4, 8, and 12 year of age were respectively 40.16mm, 47.32mm, 50.54mm for male, 39.79mm, 44.85mm, 48.09mm for female. 2. The maximum mouth opening increased with age, and the values were greater in male than in female. 3. The maximum mouth opening increased with height, and the values were eater in male than in female except between 105cm and 115cm 4. The maximum mouth opening increased with weight, and the values were eater in male than in female. 5. The correlation between the maximum mouth opening with the age, height, and weight was all significant, and height showed the highest correlation.