The Occurrence of Bad Oral Habits, Malocclusion, and the Condition of First Permanent Molars and Primary Molars in Polish Children in Wroclaw

Objectives: according to dental publications, oral health condition is not satisfactory in children in different part of Poland, therefore frequency of oral bad habits, malocclusions and caries in primary molars in preschool children and in first permanent molars in schoolchildren seemed to be of great interest. Methods: the group of 614 pre-school children (3 to 7 year olds) and 325 schoolchildren up to 12 year olds were examined by the authors. The schoolchildren were divided into 6 group: 72 seven year-old children, 67 eight year olds, 34 nine year olds, 59 ten year olds, 49 eleven year olds and 44 twelve year olds. In every case malocclusion, dysfunction and caries were clinically assesed. Results: bad oral habits occurred in 84 % schoolchildren and in 50,8% pre-school children. Thumb sucking, nail grinding, infantile type of swallowing and mouth breathing were the most common malfunctions in preschool children. Nail and different objects grinding, lip biting and infantile type of swallowing were the most common malfunctions, occurring in schoolchildren. The frequency of malocclusion was 40,3% in schoolchildren. The distribution of different types of malocclusion was as follows: distocclusion-52.8%, crossbite and mesiocclusion - 13% each one, open bite - 12.2%, deep bite - 8.9% in schoolchildren. In preschool children there was caries at least in one primary molar in 65% children, exfoliated primary molars in 2.1% children and fillings in primary molars in 16.6%.There was no clinical evidence of caries in 46.5% schoolchildren. Caries and fillings appeared respectively in: 0.42 and 0.93 of first permanent molar. Conclusion: The obtained results suggest that there is need of prophylaxis introduction in order to prevent premature lost of either first permanent molars or primary ones. Malfunctions that occur very frequently in preschool and schoolchildren also prove necessity of orthodontic prophylactic programme elaboration.