Abstract

MURRIETA PRUNEDA, José Francisco et al. Prevalence of malocclusions in a group of Mexican university students and its possible association with age, sex, and socioeconomic status, 2009. Rev Fac Odontol Univ Antioq [online]. 2012, vol.24, n.1, pp.121-132. ISSN 0121-246X.

INTRODUCTION: dental occlusion refers to the relationships of teeth at rest; it may be altered by a variety of factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dental malocclusions and their possible relations to age, sex, and socioeconomic status in a group of university students. METHODS: : the epidemiological survey was conducted in two moments: application of a questionnaire, and an oral examination. Two examiners were standardized for this purpose (Cr = 0.03, Ca = 0.89, k = 0.902). RESULTS: 47.7% of the students come from the middle class. 13.2% presented normal occlusion, and 86.8% had dental malocclusion. Their distribution per age, sex, and socioeconomic status did not show statistically significant differences. Concerning malocclusion classification, the most common one was Class I (37.3%), a figure which happened to be lower than expected, in comparison to the same condition in similar populations. CONCLUSIONS: the only conclusion drawn from this study is that socioeconomic status is not a factor associated to the frequency of dental occlusion classification in this population, so there might be other factors to be evaluated, such as cultural and educational factors.

Keywords : dental occlusion; Angle classification; dental malocclusion; prevalence; socioeconomic status.

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