Prevalence Of Different Types Of Oral Habits Among School-Children Aged 6-12 Years In Alexandria (A Survey Study)

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify the prevalence of parafunctional oral habits among schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 years in Alexandria, Egypt. Materials and methods: The study target population consisted of subjects between 6 to 12 years of age. A total of 252 Egyptian children, consisting of 158 males and 94 females were randomly examined. The examination included 1-Tongue thrusting: masseteric palpation 2-Thumb sucking: finger examination and intra-oral examination. 3-Mouth breathing: a. medical history. b. Mirror test (fog test) c. Jwemen's Butterfly test. d. Water Holding Test (Masslers test). 4-Nail biting: fingers, nails examination and intraoral examination. Questionnaires were handed out to the parents to obtain information about the child's gender, age, medical and dental history and any noticeable oral habits and collected a week later. Data was collected, sorted and registered. The subjects were assigned to different groups according to the habit. Percentile distribution of the subjects was calculated for different habit and their relation to each other, Categorical variables were analyzed using the chi-square test and Student t-test. Significance of the obtained results was judged at the 5% level (P ≤ 0.05). Results: the majority of subjects 41.07% had nail biting followed by tongue thrust with 29.4% then mouth breathing with 15.9% and the least prevalent oral habit was thumb sucking with 15.1%. 32.1% of the subjects had no habits at all and 67.9% had at least one habit. conclusion: Nail biting was the most dominant oral habit with 42.1%., the least common oral habit was thumb sucking with 15.1%, no patients were found practicing more than 3 habits.