The effect of sucking habits, cohort, sex, intercanine arch widths, and breast or bottle feeding on posterior crossbite in Norwegian and Swedish 3-year-old children

• The upper and lower intercanine arch widths and the prevalence of posterior crossbite were registered for 445 3-year-old children with and without a continuing or previous dummy-sucking or finger-sucking habit in different areas in Sweden and Norway. Sami children from northern Norway also took part in the study, as well as 15 medieval skulls with intact deciduous dentitions. Compared with the nonsuckers, an increased prevalence of posterior crossbite was observed for the finger suckers, especially the Swedish girls. Stepwise logistic regression showed that posterior crossbite could be predicted with upper intercanine arch width alone. The finger sucking variable would not improve prediction; neither did other entities such as cohort (residential area), sex, lower intercanine arch width, nor the difference between upper and lower intercanine arch width. High prevalences of posterior crossbite were registered for dummy suckers (pacifiers) especially the Swedish girls (26%). Stepwise logistic regression showed that posterior crossbite in dummy suckers could be predicted with upper and lower intercanine arch width. Stepwise linear regression showed that both arches tended to be narrower in Swedes and girls, and that dummy sucking decreased the upper and increased the lower intercanine arch width. Analyses of covariance revealed that at least 2 years of dummy sucking is necessary to produce a significant effect in the upper jaw and 3 years in the lower jaw.

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