Major deleterious oral habits: a brief systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: The deleterious habits in children, in the deciduous dentition phase, seem to be present in more than half of the child population, reaching rates greater than 90%, depending on the population studied, and dentofacial alterations may already be present in half of these individuals. Early identification is essential so that malocclusions, which are more difficult to treat, do not set in. Objective: It was to carry out a brief systematic review to highlight deleterious oral habits, as well as to point out their main predictors and treatments. Methods: The systematic review rules of the PRISMA Platform were followed. The research was carried out from April to June 2023 in Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 87 articles were found. A total of 32 articles were evaluated in full and 16 were included and developed in this systematic review study. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 6 studies with a high risk of bias and 43 studies that did not meet GRADE. Since pediatric follow-up is more frequent than consultations with the pediatric dentist, the early identification of deleterious habits by physicians is of fundamental importance in referring these patients to dental treatment that diagnoses and removes these habits, before difficult-to-resolve malocclusions get settled. Preventive measures should also be taken, guiding parents so that deleterious oral habits do not take hold, such as a minimum period of six months of breastfeeding, finger sucking should be replaced by an orthodontic pacifier, the bottle should have an orthodontic spout, removing the habit of pacifier and bottle until the age of three. There is an association between deleterious habits and different types of malocclusions in different planes of space, with atypical swallowing being a habit that must be diagnosed early.