Prevalence and Structure of the Malocclusions in Children from Boarding Schools

Introduction. Publications of the last years demonstrate the growth of malocclusions prevalence along with other main stomatological diseases. The researches carried out in different regions of Ukraine revealed some regional and age peculiarities of malocclusions prevalence. The aim of the research – assessment of the prevalence and structure of orthodontic pathology in children from boarding schools. Materials and methods. An epidemiological survey of 528 children from boarding schools of Lviv and Lviv region (main group) and 122 secondary school children (control group) at the age of 7, 9, 12 and 15 years. The results were recorded in a specially worked out cards. Classification of D. Kalvelis was used to verify the diagnosis of malocclusion. The results of the research were statistically processed using the Student's test. Results and discussion. The prevalence of malocclusions in children from the main group is 84.09 ± 1.54 %, and in children from the control group – 66.39± 4.28 %. The malocclusions prevalence in children from the main group increases up from 80.45 ± 3.44 % in 7-year-old children to 87.90 ± 2.93 % in 15-year-old children. However, malocclusions prevalence in children from the control group increases from 61.29 ± 8.75 % (in 7-year-old children) to 76.67 ± 7.72 % in 12-year-old children (it's the peak of prevalence). Further up to 15 years is noticed the decrease of malocclusion prevalence in children (to 58.62 ± 9.15 %). Anomalies of the dental arches were diagnosed in 77.08 ± 1.83 %, anomalies of individual teeth – in 16.67 ± 1.62 %, anomalies of occlusion – in 41.86 ± 2.15 %. No child with maloccluions from boarding schools was under orthodontic treatment. The analysis of the malocclusions structure of surveyed children according to the age showed that the incidence of abnormalities of the dental arches was at a high level, ranging from 70.68 ± 3.95 % to 80.65 ± 3.55 %. Otherwise, was fixed the growing of prevalence of anomalies of occlusion at the age from 7 to 15 years from 33.08 ± 4.08 % to 49.19 ± 4.49 %, because of the lack of self-regulation processes and the lack of orthodontic treatment. However, up to 12 and 15 years we have seen the growing of prevalence of anomalies of the individual teeth to 16.67 ± 3.17 % and 23.39 ± 3.80 % respectively. However, already at the age of 12 years, when the self-regulation should take place, the prevalence of all forms of malocclusions is increased, and in the age of 15 years the prevalence of anomalies of individual teeth in children from boarding-schools reached 23.39 ± 3.80 %, prevalence of dental arches – 80.65 ± 3.55 % and anomalies of occlusion – 49.19 ± 4.49 %. Conclusions. In our opinion the increase of malocclusion frequency in children of the main group with age is due to the absence of orthodontic treatment, as well as to the absence of self-regulation processes.