EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF MALOCCLUSIONS IN SCHOOLCHILDREN BETWEEN 6 AND 14 YEARS OLD FROM OLT COUNTY, ROMANIA

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of malocclusions in a group of schoolchildren from both urban and rural areas of Olt County, Romania. The study included 1255 schoolchildren aged between 6 and 14 years old, who were enrolled in randomly selected public schools from Olt County, Romania. The data were collected from December 2019 to February 2020, based on the project „Educație pentru sănătate orală. Cercetări privind anomaliile dento-maxilare și leziunile odonto-parodontale la școlarii din Oltenia”, in which several institutions were involved. The study was interrupted before it was completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In data collection and centralization we used: Angle’s classification of malocclusions and the distribution of malocclusions according to gender, age groups and origin. We obtained a prevalence of 40.47% for malocclusions. Of the total number of schoolchildren with malocclusions, the highest prevalence was recorded for those included in Angle’s class I (51.18%). We found the highest prevalence of malocclusions in female gender (41.9%). Regarding the origin, there is a higher prevalence of malocclusions in urban areas (40.85%).

Keywords

• angle’s classification
• malocclusion
• prevalence
• gender
• origin