Abstract
In recent years, prematurely born, very low birthweight children (VLBW,<1500 g) have shown increased survival rates and greatly improved outcomes because of the increasing sophistication of neonatal care. However, as they were given nutrition through tube feeding for several months in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the development of the oral function and/or the gnathofacial morphology was expected to be somewhat affected. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the development of the oral function (sucking, mastication) in children with VLBW using a quesionnaire answered by their mothers.
The subjects were seventy-eight children aged 2 to 4 yrs who had been treated at the NICU of Gifu Hospital, due to premature birth and matched with 62 healthy normal birthweight (NBW) controls. The low birthweight children were dived into two groups such as the low birthweight (LBW,<2000g,44 children) group and the very low birthweight (VLBW, including the extremely low birthweight <1000 g,34 children). The questionnaire consisted of 33 items, such as 5 items concerning sucking problems or ability,18 items concerning masticatory problems or ability and 10 other items. The ttest or chi-square test of the subject, wherever appropriate, was used for data analysis.
While there was no significant difference between the LBW and NBW groups, significant differences were found between the VLBW and NBW groups in the following areas; such as sucking problems after leaving the hospital, at beginning of weaning, at beginning of eating ordinary foods, unbalanced diet, frequency of pacifiers and verbal development.
In conclusion, it is suggested that the rates of feeling problems accompanying the development of the oral function was higher in mothers who had VLBW children than those who had the NBW and LBW children. For this reason, we dentists have to pay attention to the development of the oral function of the VLBW children and to examine them periodically.
