The purpose of this study was to clarify the conditions of the types of the oral habits in the children, and changes in them during the last ten years.
The investigation was made based on the records of the first visit to the Department of Pedodontics, School of Dentistry, Aichi-Gakuin University, taken from 0 to 10 year old children, from 1976 to 1985.
Oral habits in this study were classified into 5 species (1: Finger sucking,
2: Bruxism,3: Nail biting,4: Lip biting,5: Other biting).
The results were as follows:
1) The number of the children who had any oral habits was 1596 out of 4159(38.4%).
2) The types of oral habits were as follows:
Finger sucking: 20.0%
Bruxism: 7.0%
Nail biting: 7.8%
Lip biting: 2.1%
Other biting: 4.6%
3) Concerning the relationship between oral habits and age, finger sucking was found more evident in the 0 to 1 year old group, nail biting was found most evident in the 9 year old group, bruxism was found more appearance in the 4 to 6 year old groups, other biting was found gradually to disappearance in the 0 to 8 year old groups, and lip biting was not significant in any age group.
4) The type of oral habit was closely related to each age group of the children. Finger sucking tended to decrease with age. Nail biting and bruxism tended to increase with age, and lip biting and other biting showed no relationship to age.
5) Few over a ten year period changes were noticed in the percentages of the types of oral habits among the children having such habits.
6) The changes of each oral habit over ten years were as follows:
(1) There was found to be a tendency towards increases in such types as finger sucking and nail biting in the 3 to 6 year old groups, and nail biting and bruxism in the schoolchildren groups.
(2) There was found to be a tendecy towards decreases in such types as nail biting and other biting in the 0 to 3 year old groups, lip biting and other biting in the 3 to 6 year old groups, and finger sucking and lip biting in the schoolchildren groups.
View full abstract