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The European Journal of Orthodontics Advance Access published online on August 25, 2009
The European Journal of Orthodontics, doi:10.1093/ejo/cjp050
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Prevalence of orthodontic treatment need in southern Italian schoolchildren

Letizia Perillo*, Caterina Masucci**, Fabrizia Ferro*, Davide Apicella* and Tiziano Baccetti**

* Department of Orthodontics, University of Naples (Second University)
** Department of Orthodontics, University of Florence, Italy

Address for correspondence Tiziano Baccetti, Department of Orthodontics, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via del Ponte di Mezzo, , 46-48, 50127 Firenze, Italy, E-mail:t.baccetti{at}odonto.unifi.it


  Abstract

The present survey was performed to determine orthodontic treatment need in a large sample (n = 703) of 12-year-old schoolchildren from the southern part of Italy. The sample comprised 331 males (47 per cent) and 372 females (53 per cent), all orthodontically untreated. Two examiners, who had been previously trained in the use of occlusal indices, screened all the schoolchildren. The prevalence rates for the Dental Health Component (DHC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) as well as for occlusal features (Angle Class, overjet, overbite, crowding, posterior crossbite) were calculated for the total sample. The IOTN grades were statistically compared in the two genders using the chi-square test.

The findings indicated that this southern Italian school population showed a rather low prevalence rate for objective need for treatment (grades 4 and 5; 27.3 per cent of the total sample). This prevalence rate is generally lower than those reported in northern and central European countries (Sweden, Germany, and UK) but slightly greater than those in France. No significant differences in the DHC grades of the IOTN were found between genders. Among the occlusal features diagnosed in the subjects examined, a high prevalence rate was found for crowding (45.9 per cent). Moreover, posterior crossbites and Class III malocclusions, which would presumably have benefited from early orthodontic intervention, were still present in 14.2 and 4.3 per cent of the students, respectively.


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