Characteristics of Oral Dysfunction in Pediatric Patients with Malocclusion

To clarify the characteristics of oral dysfunction in pediatric patients with malocclusion, we compared oral function between individuals with normal occlusion and those with malocclusion. A total of 108 participants, including 41 boys and 67 girls (mean age ± standard deviation, 9.4 ± 2.2 years), were recruited from outpatients who visited the Departments of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry of Tokushima University Hospital. They were classified according to their occlusal status into normal occlusion, crowding, maxillary protrusion, mandibular protrusion, open bite, and others. This study revealed that patients with malocclusion had more functional problems (e.g. tongue thrust, low tongue posture and another oral habits) than subjects with normal occlusion and that the functional problems were associated with various types of malocclusion. Especially, patients with open bite showed the characteristic features of oral function and their maximum lip closure force was significantly weaker than that of subjects with normal occlusion (p < 0.05). We found the characteristic features of oral dysfunction in each malocclusion. It is thought that it is necessary to make an individual training program to the characteristic feature of oral function