Summary
It is essential to determine the prevalence of malocclusions for the development of preventive strategies, which should be based on the needs of the population. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of malocclusion, in children and adolescents between 6 and 15 years of age in Frutillar, Chile in 2012, according to their occlusal characteristics. In this descriptive study, we performed clinical examinations in 184 schoolchildren in Frutillar. The children were randomly selected from the total number of students in urbans schools. We evaluated the presence of crowding, spacing, the relationship of the first upper and lower molars according to Angle’s classification and canine relationship, posterior crossbite, lateral open bite, overbite and overjet. Data were tabulated and expressed by the LibreOffice software. Of the students tested 92% had some type of malocclusion, crowding being the most frequent and it was observed in 67.4% of cases. The prevalence of malocclusions found in this work, is greater than that reported in other studies. In Chile, there are few published studies that reveal the true magnitude of malocclusions in part due to the different classifications, age groups evaluated and the objective of each study.
KEY WORDS: malocclusion, prevalence, children, adolescents.
How to cite this article
BURGOS, D. Prevalence of malocclusion in 6 to 15-year-old children and adolescents in Frutillar, Chile. Int. J. Odontostomat., 8(1):5-11, 2014.
