Abstract
Objective: To analyse selected malocclusion risk factors, their exposure time and overall malocclusion risk scores. Material and Methods: The self-prepared questionnaires were collected at dental practitioners’ waiting rooms from 6/2014 to 12/2015. The study group consisted of patients treated by dental braces (n=82; 15.5±4.4 years) and the control group consisted of other patients not treated by dental braces (n=45; 17.6±4.7 years). Data were processed by the statistical program SPSS using descriptive statistics. To verify the hypothesis wad used two sample t-test to compare the average exposure scores and the exposure time between the two groups. To determine associations between categorical variables was used Chi-square test. Statistical significance was set at p-value <0.05. Results: Our results confirmed longer exposure times in all studied malocclusion risk factors, in the case of pacifier sucking the difference was significant (p=0.001). The longest exposure time was found in mouth breathing in the study group (12.2±6.5 years). The lip sucking/chewing cannot be confirmed as a malocclusion risk factor. The study group had higher level of an overall mean risk score (19.8±11.5) compared the control group (16.1±12.1), although not significant. It can be concluded that non-nutritive sucking habits and/or mouth breathing could have damaging effect to normal teeth development. Conclusion: Malocclusions could be preventable, thus we recommend setting up educational programs for dentists and paediatricians as well as for parents focusing on the improvement of oral health knowledge.
Highlights
Risk factors for oral health disorders include poor oral hygiene, tobacco use, harmful alcohol use [1,2], and unhealthy diet [3]
Malocclusions could be preventable, we recommend setting up educational programs for dentists and paediatricians as well as for parents focusing on the improvement of oral health knowledge
Data Collection It was used a self-prepared questionnaire consisting of several questions regarding basic demographic data and 11 questions regarding selected malocclusion risk factors and their exposure time that are relevant in malocclusion development
Summary
Risk factors for oral health disorders include poor oral hygiene, tobacco use, harmful alcohol use [1,2], and unhealthy diet [3]. Taking care of oral health is an integral part of the overall health care [4]. Oral health has recently become an increasingly debated topic. It does not have a major impact on the overall morbidity and mortality, dental health significantly affects the quality of life. It may happen that erupted permanent teeth are too big for one’s mouth and they do not fit in, hinder the growth of other teeth and the resulting effect is variously crooked teeth. The growth of the jaws improves this defect. Various oral bad habits as thumb sucking, finger biting [5] and/or pacifier sucking [6], tongue thrusting, lip biting and/or sucking, bruxism, and mouth breathing can produce destructive effects on the dentoalveolar structures. Like duration of the bad habit per day, degree and intensity of bad habit, are responsible to produce lasting and detrimental effects [7]
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