title: Lip incompetence and psychosocial effects: a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the study was to determine whether children are more negatively perceived because of a lip incompetence.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample survey study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two sets of colored pictures (1 set with the mouth open and 1 set with the mouth closed) were taken of four children with lip incompetence and mouth breathing and four children with normal lip closure and breathing patterns. These pictures were presented to a group of judges in Belgium and Brazil. Judges were presented either pictures of the closed mouth sets or pictures of the open mouth sets and were asked to rate on a 10-point scale the chance that the child was shy, had few friends, belonged to a lower socioeconomic class, had problems with reading, writing, or arithmetic, had ever manifested thumb-sucking, and had difficulties breathing through the nose. In each child, scores obtained for the open mouth set were compared with those obtained for the closed mouth set.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no consistent pattern of higher scores being assigned to the pictures of the open mouth set, neither in the Belgian survey nor in the Brazilian survey.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrary with past and present claims, results suggest that children with a lip incompetence are not necessarily perceived negatively.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Veiga de Almeida, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Domingos Savio Ferreira
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Ciriaco Cristóvão Tavares
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Atherino
authors.forename: Marina Ribeiro
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cervasio
authors.forename: Gerarda de Melo
authors.initials: Gde M
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Olivia Ribeiro
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Cervasio
authors.forename: Heleen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bruggeman
authors.forename: Liesbeth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cornelis
authors.forename: Lieve
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haspeslagh
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Borsel
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008046:Lip / Q000002:abnormalities*; D008297:Male; D009058:Mouth Breathing / Q000453:epidemiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011187:Posture; D011584:Psychology; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception