Introduction:

Parafunctional oral habits are the primary or secondary cause of malocclusions or dentomaxillofacial anomalies which severity varies depending on age.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of parafunctional oral habits in 12-13 years adolescents.

Methods:

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in 450 adolescents that presented a permanent complete teething according to their age, belonging to Manuel Ascunce Domenech Secondary School of Guantánamo province, who were assisted in the Stomatologic Clinic of 4 de Abril Teaching Polyclinic in that city from December, 2022 to January, 2023. The selected variables were sex, age, as well as the presence and type of parafunctional habit. The chi-square test was used with a significance level α=0.05.

Results:

The prevalence of parafunctional oral habits was 38.0%; of these, the most frequent were queilophagia (33.9%) and mouth breathing (25.2%), mainly in women (50.3%) and the 12 years group (62.6%).

Conclusions:

A low prevalence of parafunctional oral habits was found in 12-13 years adolescents and queilophagia was the most significant.

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