Assessment of the Prevalence of Oral Habits in 3-6 Year Old School Going Children in Chandigarh Area

Abstract

Abstract Aim: This study was designed to assessthe prevalence of various oral habits among 3-6 years old school childrenin Chandigarh Method: Fifteen different public schools were randomly selected among 45 public schools in Chandigarh area from where 938 children (3-6 yr) were randomly selected (511 boys and 427 girls) with the objectives of recording the prevalence of oral habits. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 10.0 software and the statistical significance of oral habits as related to age groups and sex were calculated by using ANOVA test. Results: The overall prevalence of oral habits in children was 11.7%. Nail biting was the commonest habit (5.5%) followed by thumb sucking (4.05%), tongue thrusting (1.8%), mouth breathing(0.3%) and lip biting(0%). Also, there were no significant differences between boys and girls with respect to prevalence of oral habits. However, a significant difference was observed between different age groups with respect to the prevalence of oral habits. Conclusions: The data revealed that a significant percentage of the children had deleterious oral habits which can contribute towards the development of malocclusion. This helps in identifying children who are in need to intercept the oral habits at earliest to avoid future occurrence of malocclusion.