Protocol of orofacial myofunctional evaluation with scores

Summary Objective In the literature there is no validated instrument for the clinical evaluation of the orofacial myofunctional condition of children that will permit the examiner to express numerically his perception of the characteristics and behaviors observed. The proposal of this study is to describe a protocol for the evaluation of children aged 6–12 years in order to establish relations between the orofacial myofunctional conditions and numerical scales. The protocol validity, reliability of the examiners and agreement between them was analyzed. Methods Eighty children aged 6–12 years participated in the study. All were evaluated and 30 were selected at random for the analyses (age range: 72–149 months, mean = 103.3, S.D. = 23.57). Individuals with and without orofacial myofunctional disorders were included. The examiners were two speech therapists properly calibrated in orofacial myofunctional evaluation. Two protocols were constructed. One, based on traditional models, was called traditional orofacial myofunctional evaluation (TOME), and the other, with the addition of numerical scales, was called orofacial myofunctional evaluation with scores (OMES). The clinical conditions included were: appearance, posture and mobility of lips, tongue, cheeks and jaws, respiration, mastication and deglutition. Statistical analysis was performed using the split-half reliability method. Means, standard deviations and the Spearman correlation coefficient were also calculated. Results There was a statistically significant correlation between the evaluations of 30 children assessed with the TOME and OMES protocols ( r = 0.85, p < 0.01). The reliability between protocols was 0.92. The test–retest reliability of the OMES instrument was 0.99 and the correlation was 0.98. Reliability between examiners 1 and 2 using the OMES protocol was 0.99, and the correlation was 0.98 ( p < 0.01). Conclusion The OMES protocol proved to be a valid and reliable instrument for orofacial myofunctional evaluation, permitting the grading of orofacial myofunctional conditions within the limits of the selected items.