Prevalência de maloclusões em crianças escolares e sua associação com hábitos bucais deletérios

Abstract

Malocclusions occupy the third position in relation to priorities in the scale of oral health problems in Brazil, being quite frequent in children with primary or mixed dentition, and despite having a multifactorial etiology, there is a high relationship with deleterious oral habits, generating a great impact on quality of life of individuals. Was analyzed through clinical examination the main dental malocclusions that affect schoolchildren aged 8 to 13 years, from a public school in Maceió - Brazil, who had deleterious oral habits. This is a quantitative analytical cross-sectional study, which assessed the occlusion of 100 children (n = 100) by intra-oral clinical examination. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to learn about existing deleterious oral habits, interferences in mandibular movements, type of bite and intermaxillary relationship (Angle classification). This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee - REC-UNIT \ AL, under opinion number: 08205718.0.0000.5641, in 2019. The data were analyzed by absolute and relative frequency. Of the 100 children analyzed, there was a predominance of males (53%) over females (47%), the age group that stood out was 08 years (44%), and self-declared browns (56%). The prevalence of malocclusions was found in a total of 55% of individuals, in which a higher relative frequency of patients with open bite (24%), deep bite (20%) and cross bite (11%) was found, respectively. The deleterious oral habits were present in 93% of the individuals, with emphasis on the prolonged use of the pacifier (68%), followed by onychophagy (10%), digital sucking (9%), and prolonged use of the baby bottle (6%). The intermaxillary relationship had a higher prevalence of class I (45%), class II (9%), class III (5%), respectively. The prevalence of malocclusions in children who have deleterious oral habits, especially the prolonged use of pacifiers, was high for this sample. These habits interfere with the child's healthy development, triggering low quality of life. It is necessary to improve public policies in force in Brazil, such as the Programa Saúde na Escola, in order to work on themes aimed at preventing malocclusions, as well as expanding the access of the family nucleus to oral health services.