European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Malocclusion is one of the common dental problems reported in children that refers to the malalignment of the teeth or improper relationship of the dental arches due to altered developmental systems of the orofacial complex. Several studies have reported on the relationship between malocclusion and dental caries in which the presence of malocclusion such as crowding and spacing may act as predisposing factors in the development of dental caries. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of dental caries among 12-16 years old school children with malocclusion. It is a retrospective study conducted by reviewing 86,000 patient case records of the Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, India. A total of 313 consecutive case records of patients for a period of June 2019 to March 2020 with signed informed consent were retrieved and analysed. Patient’s name, patient’s identification number (PID), age, gender, malocclusion and dmft score were collected from the patients’ case records. Data collection and analysis were done using the SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive analysis was done for the assessment of age, gender, malocclusion and dental caries. Chi square test was used to evaluate the association of dmft score with malocclusion. A total of 134 children with malocclusion were affected by dental caries (42.81%). The overall dmft score was 1.5. Most of the children present with dental caries were within the 12-14 years age group (60.45%), followed by those within the 15-16 years age group (39.55%). High prevalence of dental caries was seen in males (52.24%) as compared to females (47.76%). Most of the children had Class I malocclusion (70.93%), followed by Class II malocclusion (29.07%). In terms of crowding, mandibular crowding (57.19%) was more common among the children when compared to maxillary crowding (38.98%). There is a statistically significant association between maxillary crowding and dental caries. No association of dental caries with mandibular crowding and dental malocclusion. Within the limits of the present study, dental caries is seen in 134 of the patients with an average dmft score of 1.5. There is a positive association between maxillary crowding and dental caries but no significant association of dental caries with dental malocclusion and mandibular crowding.