Feeding, Artificial Sucking Habits, and Malocclusions in 3-year-old Girls in Different Regions of the World

Department of Pediatric Dentistry
Lutheran Medical Center

Resident’s Name: Dan Boboia Date: 4/24/09
Article title: Feeding, Artificial Sucking Habits, and Malocclusions in 3-year-old Girls in Different Regions of the World
Author(s): Calgar, Esber et al.
Journal: Journal of Dentistry for Children
Volume (number): 72:1
Month, Year: 2005
Major topic: To determine feeding methods, artificial sucking habits, and the presence of malocclusions in 3-year-old girls living in different regions of the world
Methods:
Children from the following countries were involved in this study: Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Turkey and the U.S.
Sixty 3-year-old girls were selected from each of these populations; due to attrition the group size decreased to 49 by the time the children reached age 3
During the interview and examination the following variables were evaluated:
1) breast-feeding, bottle-feeding, duration, and frequency
2) sucking habits
3) posterior and anterior crossbites
4) other malocclusions / normal occlusion
Results:
High prevalence of breast-feeding in all groups (78-98%)
High prevalence of bottle-feeding (almost all had used a bottle for various periods of time)
Except for the US, digit-sucking was considered low; it was noted that those who started digit-sucking had difficulty discontinuing it
Pacifier sucking was popular in most areas with the exception of Nigeria
Malocclusion ranged from 38-98%; great differences in the prevalence of malocclusions were registered in this study; only one Japanese patient had a malocclusion; in the Oslo, Norway sample only 38% of children had normal occlusion; its concluded that this resulted from high prevalence and long duration of artificial sucking habits
Conclusions:
1) High prevalence of breast-feeding was over 78% in the countries studied
2) Almost all subjects used a nursing bottle for some time
3) Low prevalence of digit-sucking, with the exception of the US sample
4) Pacifier-sucking is popular in most areas; however, none of the Japanese girls experienced the habit
5) Prevalence of normal occlusion in different samples ranged from 38-98%
Article Assesment:
Fair article; would have liked to see more discussion regarding the differences in malocclusion among the groups studied