title: Evaluation of the effects of orthodontic pacifiers on the primary dentitions of 24- to 59-month-old children: preliminary study.
abstract: This study was designed to compare the occlusions of 24- to 59-month-old children who used orthodontic or conventional pacifiers to the occlusions of a group of controls who had no sucking habits. Information on the habits was collected by parental questionnaires. Ninety-five children were examined for malocclusions involving overbite, overjet, canine, and molar relationships, and posterior crossbites. Users of orthodontic pacifiers had statistically significantly greater overjets, and there was a significantly higher proportion of subjects with open bite in the conventional pacifier group. There was a trend toward a greater number of subjects in the control and orthodontic pacifier group with overbites less than or equal to 50%. These differences were not clinically significant, however. There appeared to be only minor differences between the occlusions of the two pacifier groups.
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Georgia, Augusta.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Adair
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Milano
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Dushku
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007224:Infant Care / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D009973:Orthodontics, Preventive / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013391:Sucking Behavior; D013997:Time Factors