Impact of malocclusion on the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of 8 to 10 years old school children.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of malocclusion on
the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of
school children.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among four
hundred and twenty five (425) 8-10 years school pupils
in Lagos Nigeria. Malocclusion was assessed using the
Dental Aesthetic Index while OHRQoL was assessed
using the Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ 8-10).
Data entry and analyses was done with SPSS Version
23.0. Data were subjected to descriptive statistical
analysis and Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA were
used for comparison between variables. Level of
significance was set at 0.05.
Results: Gender distribution of the study population
was; 48.8% (208) males and 51.2% (217) females. The
mean age of the participants was 9.23±0.83 and their
median age was 9 years. The prevalence of
malocclusion according to DAI was 25.9%. Over 70% of
the children were found to have no/ or slight need for
orthodontic treatment (DAI score < 25), elective
treatment was needed in 19.1% of subjects (DAI score
25-30), while in 6.8% of the surveyed population;
treatment was highly desirable/mandatory. The
differences in the prevalence of malocclusion among
the different age groups was observed to be statistically
significant (P = 0.038). The overall mean CPQ 8-10 was
19.51±17.1. There was no statistically significant
difference in mean CPQ scores between gender
(P=0.565), age (P=0.524) and severity of malocclusion
(P=0.296)
Conclusion: The prevalence of malocclusion in this
study was 25.9% with an overall mean CPQ of
19.51±17.1. Higher mean CPQ values were observed
with females, older age group and subjects with DAI 31-
35; however, it was not statistically significant.