Research progress of upper airway fluid dynamics in the diagnosis and treatment of malocclusion associated with adenoid hypertrophy
10.12016/j.issn.2096-1456.202660060
- Author:
TANG Xin
1
;
XIAO Liwei
1
Author Information
1. Center of Stomatology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
maxillofacial growth and development;
malocclusion;
mouth breathing;
adenoid hypertrophy;
computational fluid dynamics;
upper airway;
airflow characteristics;
personalized diagnosis and treatment
- From:
Journal of Prevention and Treatment for Stomatological Diseases
2026;34(9):917-925
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Adenoid hypertrophy is one of the most common causes of upper airway obstruction in children, often presenting with nasal congestion as the initial symptom and accompanied by a series of related manifestations. Due to impaired nasal ventilation, affected children are forced into compensatory mouth breathing. This altered breathing pattern modifies the upper airway fluid environment, leading to abnormal changes in airflow velocity, pressure distribution, and flow patterns. Prolonged mouth breathing disrupts the dynamic equilibrium of perioral musculature, thereby interfering with normal maxillofacial growth and development and contributing to the occurrence of malocclusion. Upper airway fluid mechanics, developed through the integration of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology and medical imaging, serves as a quantitative analytical tool capable of precisely characterizing airflow velocity, pressure distribution, and flow patterns within anatomically complex structures such as the nasal cavity and pharynx. By leveraging multidimensional fluid mechanical parameters, this approach can accurately depict the flow field characteristics of the upper airway in patients with adenoid hypertrophy, clearly illustrating the relationship between airway anatomy and ventilatory function, and providing objective quantitative evidence for disease assessment. In clinical practice, CFD enables the evaluation of how different interventions improve airway ventilation, allowing scientific prediction and objective assessment of therapeutic outcomes. Nevertheless, several critical challenges remain, including the lack of standardized protocols for upper airway modeling and boundary condition definition, insufficient understanding of the dynamic relationship between fluid mechanical parameters and the progression of malocclusion severity, and the predominance of cross-sectional study designs with limited longitudinal data on pre- and post-intervention flow field changes, which restricts the translation of simulation results into actionable clinical indicators. In the future, with the establishment of standardized simulation workflows and the conduct of large-scale prospective cohort studies, upper airway fluid mechanics is expected to integrate with artificial intelligence and multimodal imaging technologies to develop intelligent decision-support systems, thereby advancing the scientific rigor and personalization of diagnosis and treatment for adenoid hypertrophy and associated malocclusion.
- Full text:202609111548306284上气道流体力学在腺样体肥大相关错𬌗畸形诊疗中的研究进展.pdf
