Normal Mouth Opening in an Adult Indian Population

• Published in: Journal of maxillofacial and oral surgery 2012-09, Vol.11 (3), p.309-313
• Main Authors: Khare, Nishant, Patil, Surendra B., Kale, Satish M., Sumeet, Jaiswal, Sonali, Ingole, Sumeet, Bharadwaj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Age groups; Dentistry; Females; Gender; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mouth; Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Otorhinolaryngology; Plastic Surgery; Research Paper
• ISSN: 0972-8279; 0974-942X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12663-012-0334-1

Background Mouth opening among different population has been shown to vary considerably and its range is specific for a given population. The present study is an attempt to calculate the normal mouth opening in adult Indian population. Method A total of 894 adults, 463 males and 431 females, in the age range of 21 to 70 years were studied. The subjects were asked to open their mouth maximally till no further opening was possible. The distance from the incisal edge of the upper incisor teeth to the incisal edge of the lower incisor teeth was measured using a calibrated fiber ruler. To determine correlation of mouth opening with age a Pearson correlation analysis was performed and statistical significance was tested by the application of t test. Observations The mean maximal mouth opening for males was 51.3 mm (SD 8.3) (Range 39–70 mm). The mean maximal mouth opening for females was 44.3 mm (SD 6.7) (Range 36–56 mm). There was significant difference between the mouth opening of male and female in all the age groups with P value