Maloclusiones y hábitos bucales parafuncionales en adolescentes escolarizados de Mérida, Venezuela

Abstract

Parafunctional oral habits are risk factors for the presenceof dental malocclusions, which occupy the third place among stomatological diseasesand constitute a public health problem. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of parafunctional habits and their relationship with the presence of malocclusions in school children between 12 and 15 years of age in two educational units in the municipality of Libertador, MeridaState, Venezuela.A descriptive, cross-sectional and field studywas conducted in a population of 68 adolescents to determine the presence of parafunctional oral habits that presented moderate or severe malocclusion, to which a questionnaire designed for the research was applied, with prior informed consent consideringthe ethical and legal aspects of the research.The data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS, finding that 90.63% presented some type of parafunctional oral habit. The most prevalent habits were onychophoagia (46.9%) and lip suction (46.9%), followed by digital suction (28.1%) and bruxism (25%). It was concluded that for the study group there is a relationship between the presence of dental malocclusions and parafunctional oral habits.