Research Article
Oral Habits and Occlusal characteristic in Preschool Children in Khartoum State
Ahmed FH1 and Abuaffian AH2*1General dentist, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan
2Department of Orthodontics and Pedodontics, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan
- *Corresponding Author:
- Abuaffian AH
Associate Professor
Department of Orthodontics and Pedodontics
University of Medical Sciences and Technology
Khartoum, Sudan
Tel: +00249912696035
E-mail: amalabuaffan@yahoo.com
Received date: March 18, 2016; Accepted date: March 23, 2016; Published date: March 30, 2016
Citation:Ahmed FH, Abuaffian AH (2016) Oral Habits and Occlusal characteristic in Preschool Children in Khartoum State. Pediatr Dent Care 1:105. doi:10.4172/pdc.1000105
Copyright: ©2016 Ahmed FH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
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.