Occurrence of oral habits among preschool children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective: to determine occurrence of oral habits among saudi preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (asd) and compare it with healthy preschool children. methods: this study was conducted over a 14-months period in riyadh,saudi arabia. the sample consisted of two groups; a study group (sg) of 150 asd children,and a control group (cg) of age- and gender-matched 150 healthy children. the parents of the children in both the groups were administered a questionnaire that included questions about the children’s demographic information and previous or persistent oral habits. results: the prevalence of oral habits was higher (87.3%) among the sg children as compared to cg children (49.3%). the most prevalent oral habit among the sg was bruxism (n = 82; 54.7%),followed by object biting (n = 67; 44.7%) and mouth breathing (n = 40; 26.7 %). among the cg; the most prevalent oral habit was mouth breathing (n = 40; 26.7%) followed by nail biting (n=18; 12%) and object biting (n = 7; 4.7%). the prevalence of bruxism,object biting,thumb sucking and tongue biting was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the sg than the cg. conclusions: the prevalence of oral habits was higher in the asd group children than the healthy children. © 2017,professional medical publications. all rights reserved.