Association between deleterious oral habits and its effect on dentition among 5-15 years children

Oral habits in children is considered to be one of the most common etiology for orthodontic malocclusion, the prolonged effect of these habits can result in alternation of orofacial structures. Habits are acquired by automatism, represented by an altered pattern of muscle contraction with complex characteristics. In very young children some habits are considered to be a normal process of development at least till 3yrs of age. Oral habits could be parafunctional or functional. It has been observed that there has been an ascending trend in the prevalence of oral habit in children. Thus the aim of this study is to determine the effects of oral habits on dentition. Completed case sheets were collected from a private dental college. Case sheets were taken from June 2019 to April 2020. Data was retrieved and evaluated by 2 reviewers. Once the data was collected, it was then tabulated based on the parameters which are habits, molar relation, malocclusion, age and gender. Correlations between the parameters are determined. The study showed that a total of 50 children ages from 5-15 years old had oral habits. Tongue thrusting was found to be the most common oral habit (44%) Class II Div I malocclusion was mostly seen in thumb sucking patients (31,6%). The 9 year old children were found to be the highest number of children with oral habits. In this study, we observed that children with habits may result in malocclusion if they persist with the habit.