An Investigation Of Oral Habits On The Only Child

Objective To investigate the prevalence and contributing factors of oral habits on the only child in order to provide a scientific basis for carrying out oral hygiene education and preventing malocclusion.Methods 1723 only-children and 2089 children with siblings of different dental ages were selected by stratified and cluster sampling in Fuzhou city. It included questionnaire and examination in this survey. The questionnaire was designed on literatures and pilot survey, including general items, oral habits , method and duration of infant feeding, et, al. The oral habits were examined and the dentition phase, occlusion and caries were recorded in details. The results were recorded and analyzed by SPSS 10.0 for windows.Results The prevalence of oral habits among the only-children (41.5%) was lower significantly than the children with siblings (46.0%). The risk factors of unilateral mastication were caries, residing in county or towns, the risk of suffering unilateral mastication also increase with the units of residual crown and root. Only child and higher education offather were the protective factors for unilateral mastication.Conclusion The main contributing factor of the oral habits was the standard of living.