Medicina neonatal y pediátrica

Abstracto

Oral Habits and Occlusal characteristic in Preschool Children in Khartoum State

Ahmed FH and Abuaffian AH

Background: Habits are acquired automatisms, represented by an altered pattern of muscle contraction with complex characteristics, which proceed unconsciously and in a regular basis.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence of oral habits in preschool children 2-5 years old and to assess the correlation between habits and malocclusion.
Material and method: A cross-sectional study conducted by questionnaire and clinical examination for 417 preschool children aged 2-5 years using a stratified cluster random sampling technique. Chi-square test in SPSS was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Thumb sucking habit is the most common occurrence of oral habit (23.7%), followed by mouth breathing (11.5%), pacifier sucking (10.1%) and tongue thrust (4.3%). All the habits were more frequent among 4 years of age. Anterior open bite was found to be (31%) and high significant value with thumb sucking and mouth breathing (P-value=0.000). A significant difference was recorded between thumb and pacifier sucking habit and cross bite (P-value=0.00).
Conclusion: Oral habits among a sample of Sudanese preschool children were found to be very frequent 48.9%. Education program should be established for parents and preschool teachers about the sound effects of oral habit on occlusion.