Prevalence of oral habits in 563 Nigerian preschool children age 3-5 years
CO Onyeaso, EO Sote
Department of Preventive Dentistry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Correspondence Address:
C O Onyeaso Department of Preventive Dentistry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan Nigeria
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
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Erratum in
Niger Postgrad Med J 2002 Sep;9(3):178-9.
One of the contributory factors in the establishment of occlusion is the child's oral habits. A limited amount of information is available on oral habits of pre-school children especially on Nigerian pre-school children. With an increasing interest in the early recognition of mal-occlusion and a corresponding emphasis on preventive procedures, more information on pre-school children may prove to be useful. This study revealed the prevalence of oral habits among 563 Nigerian pre-school children aged 3-5 years at 13.14%: 6.74% for males, 6.4%for females. The acquired data were tested with chi-square(chi2). The results indicate significant gender difference for tongue thrusting/sucking only (P=0.01) using the fisher's exact test. The relationship between digital sucking habit and mal-occlusion was very significant (P<0.01).
