Bite and Sight: Is There a Correlation? Clinical Association between Dental Malocclusion and Visual Disturbances in Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between malocclusions and visual defects. This is a case-control study evaluating the prevalence of visual defects in patients with different types of malocclusions. Methods: One-hundred and sixty patients aged from 5 to 14 were evaluated using the ROMA index to detect malocclusion; the ones with the lowest scores were used as the control group. They were also submitted to visual-capacity inspection for motility and refractive disorders. Results: Our work showed an enhanced prevalence of refractive defects or fusional vergence defects and alteration of eye movements (especially the saccades) in almost all dental malocclusions. Statistics: The Kappa test values for ROMA index were between 0.643 and 1.00 for the intraoperator agreement (0.00 p p = 0 p < 0.05. Statistical analyses were performed with the STATA software (version 15.0, Stata Corp LP, College Station, TX, USA). Conclusion: Considering the high level of the statistical analysis and the accuracy of the methodology used, these data allows the establishment of a huge correlation between sagittal, transversal and vertical malocclusions with ocular disorders (myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and ocular motility defects).

Keywords

• dental malocclusions
• visual disturbances
• pediatric patients
• refractive defects
• alteration eye movements
• ROMA index