Prevalence of Malocclusion in Secondary School Students with Different Socio-Economic Levels

Dental malocclusion, like other dental abnormalities is widespread, but can be a preventable entity. In a majority of cases, malocclusion results from deficient basic knowledge about the effects of early loss of the primary dentition, bad habits and preventive oral hygiene measures. The purpose of the present study is to measure the malocclusion in eastern province high school male students, record the prevalence of malocclusion among them, and to compare the malocclusion in different socioeconomic levels.

In recent years, much attention has been focused on measuring the severity and prevalence of malocclusion and the orthodontic treatment needed worldwide. Malocclusion refers to the malalignment of teeth and/or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The etiology of malocclusion has proven to be one of the most important issues in orthodontics. Different theories have tried to explain the etiology of dental crowding including hereditary and environmental factors.^{1, 2}

Occlusal anteroposterior relationships are: Normal occlusion, Class I malocclusion, Class II Division¹, Class II Division 2, and Class III malocclusion. Patients with an occlusal pattern that deviated from the Class I relationship as described by Angle³ (including crowding, spacing, rotations and abnormal overbite and overjet) were categorized as Class I malocclusion. Thus, the Class I normal category was limited to patients with occlusions that were ideal or near ideal. Patients with a different Angle classification of occlusion on each side were categorized into a single class based on the predominant pattern of occlusion and/or canine relationship.^{4, 5, 6}