Prevalence of oral behaviours in general dental patients attending a university clinic in Italy

BackgroundOral behaviors represent a diverse array of habits beyond the physiological behaviors of the stomatognathic system. ObjectiveTo describe the prevalence of different oral behaviors, as reported with the Oral Behavior Checklist (OBC-21), in a convenience sample of patients attending an Italian university clinic for routine dental cares. MethodsIn this study, charts of adult patients presenting to the dental department of a regional hospital in Trieste, Italy, from January 2018 and January 2019 were reviewed. Patients with complete files were retrieved, and those with orofacial pain complaints were excluded. OBC-21 scores and grades (score of 0 corresponding to no risk, 1-24 to low risk, and higher than 24 to high risk) were analyzed and stratified according to age and sex. ResultsData from a total of 1424 patients were reported. The overall mean OBC score was 13.3 +/- 9.9, with 6.7% no-risk grade, 79.6% low-risk grade, and 13.7% high-risk grade. In general, mean OBC scores decreased with increasing age. Females showed a higher frequency of high-risk grade than males. Most frequent prevalent habits included yawning (73.1%), eating between meals (66.9%) and chewing food on one side only (63.3%). Other behaviors were also highly prevalent, including pressing, touching, or holding teeth together other than while eating (52.7%) and awake clenching (47.5%). ConclusionA low-risk grade of oral behaviors has been found to be frequent in our sample. Future studies are warranted to confirm these findings in larger, representative general populations and to assess if any of these habits are linked to negative effects on the stomatognathic system.