“Methods: ” Thirty three individuals with MS, aged 2 to 20 years (mean of 10 years), being 16 females and 17 males, and 46 healthy subjects matched by age and sex were enrolled in the study. A trained and calibrated oral health care professional (AO) has evaluated all participants through Oral Motor Assessment Scale (OMAS). The muscle performance was assessed during feeding and scores were attributed to the following items: “mouth closure ability”, “lip closure on the utensil capacity”, “lip closure during deglutition”, “control of the food during swallowing”, “sucking straw capacity”, “control of liquid during deglutition”, and “mastication efficiency”. The score zero was credited to more impaired type or passive; score 1 to sub functional type; score 2 to semi functional type; and score 3 to the functional type or normal function. The final classification score of oral motor skill was attributed based on the most frequent score.
“Results: ” The subjects with MS presented significantly lower values of final scores when compared with the control group (0<0.0001). In the study group, 5(15.2%) were classified as passive, 4(12.1%) as sub functional 1, 10(30.3%) as semi functional and 14 (42.4%) presented functional performance.
“Conclusion: ” Masticatory efficiency is severely affected by Moebius syndrome and the ability to close the lips and the capacity to “sucking straw” represents the most restriction in this group of individuals.