European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Housewives group of people who take care of the household and under some amount of stress without time for a regular dental check-up or proper oral hygiene practices and with the possibilities of having oral habits such as teeth grinding, nail biting, tooth pick usage, etc as a form of stress release.
Objectives:
To assess the oral hygiene practices, oral habits and dental health seeking behaviour among housewives at SAF Games village residential colony in Chennai city.
Materials and methods:
A cross sectional study using a self-developed questionnaire was conducted to assess the oral hygiene practices, oral habits and dental health seeking behaviour among housewives at SAF Games village residential colony in Chennai city.
Results:
Moderate level of awareness on effective oral hygiene practices was observed in most of the participants. 4 to 25 % of the participants were having oral habits such teeth grinding, nail biting and tooth pick usage. The dental health seeking behaviour was problem driven rather than preventive driven.
Conclusion:
It was concluded that housewives need to be educated on oral hygiene measures including flossing and mouthwash usage and need to undergo comprehensive oral and general examination to assess the full extent of oral health status and treatment needs. They need to be educated on the importance of preventive health care.

Background: Oral health is traditionally defined as an oral status that is free of diseases, which not only makes people look beautiful, but also contributes to the normal function of mouth. Aim: To evaluate self‑reported oral hygiene practice and knowledge in dental students of Narsinhbhai Dental College and Hospital, Visnagar. Method: This cross‑sectional study was conducted on total 391 voluntarily participated students of Narsinhbhai Patel Dental College, in the month of October 2020. It included 151 students of pre-clinical group, 166 students of clinical group, 74 students in the group of interns. A total of 15 questions were designed to evaluate the oral hygiene practice and knowledge, in the format of multiple choice questions. Result: In this study most of the students brush their teeth twice daily for 2 min most of the students visited the dentist only when problems arise. Majority of students considered oral health as important as general health and believed that oral health affects
the general health too. Students were also aware of the harmful effects of tobacco while only few of them were overindulged in them. Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that oral hygiene practice score and knowledge score was greater in the group of interns followed by the group of clinical students and pre-clinical group of students as year increases, knowledge score and oral hygiene practice score increases and knowledge increases, oral hygiene score increases.

Aim: To access the Prevalence of oral habits among preschool children of Ludhiana City. Settings and Design: Study was conducted on pre-schoolers of Ludhiana city. Total 1600 parents of preschoolers were given questionnaire regarding oral habits.Methods and Material: In the present cross-sectional study, 1600 questionnaires were distributed to the parents/caregivers. The parents/caregivers were included in the study whose children were 3-5 years of age and with primary dentition and no history of orthodontic treatment.Statistical analysis used: The data collected was subjected to descriptive analysis. Results:The present study showed that the prevalence of oral habits among pre-school children in Ludhiana city was 31.9%. No significant difference was found on the basis of gender and sex (p-value≥0.05).Conclusions: Present study showed that nail biting showed highest prevalence rate and tongue thrusting was least common oral habit.

Aim: Purpose of the study was to judge the prevalence of malocclusion and associated predisposing deleterious oral habits in South Indian teen population. Methodology: Prevalence of malocclusion and treatment need was assessed using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) among a sample of 1000, 12 and 15-year-old school children in prominent South Indian cities, who received no treatment before or during the study. Subjects were also assessed for deleterious oral habits. For statistical analysis, Chi-square test was wont to test the correlation of habits with mean DAI score and malocclusion traits. Results: Mean DAI score was 26.81±5.25. Nearly 52% of the study sample presented with malocclusion, starting from ‘definite’ to ‘handicapping’ supported the DAI scores. The prevalence of varied deleterious oral habits was 21.2%. About 35% of youngsters with any oral habit developed malocclusion as compared to those with none habit (P value=0.014). Tongue thrusting, mouth breathing and thumb sucking habits had a major impact on malocclusion.Conclusion: It was evident from the results of our study that presence of malocclusion directly depends upon the presence of deleterious oral habits in general.

Oral habits are a result of frequent repetition of certain definitive sets of nerve impulses. The etiology of the development of oral habits include anatomical, mechanical, pathological, physiological, imitation or just plain behaviour. Commonly occuring oral habits include thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, mouth breathing, bruxism, finger biting, finger nail biting, cheek biting and masochism. Treatment may vary from different oral habits. The aim of this study is to investigate the gender difference in the development of oral habits among patients. Materials and methods: Data collection was done in a university setting.One hundred case records were reviewed from the time period of June 2019 to March 2020. Excel tabulation and SPSS Version 22 was used for data analysis. Results and discussion: There was no statistical significance between the variables that were analysed. (p-value>0.05) Conclusion: This study shows that there is no significant difference between gender and oral habit development.

Oral habits such as finger and thumb sucking, lip sucking, mouth breathing when used excessively or continuously can lead to poor dental health or malocclusion.The use of habit breaking appliances will restrict oral habits and prevent malocclusion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, gender and age distribution of usage of habit breaking appliances in the management of parafunctional oral habits. 44,100 patient records were reviewed from June 2019 to March 2020. Patients who had undergone treatment with habit breaking appliances were selected and their treatment details were obtained from the patient records to obtain the prevalence. Details on habits and habit breaking appliances were also noted and tabulated in excel and imported to SPSS. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were done. There was a statistical significance between age and habits breaking appliances (p<0.05). No statistical significance was noted between gender and appliance usage. Treatment with habit breaking appliances was more prevalent in males. Thumb sucking was the most prevalent habit among the studied population and tongue crib was the preferred choice of appliance.