Prevalence of malocclusion in children aged 12 to 36 months in João Pessoa, Paraíba state

Sabrina Sales Lins de ALBUQUERQUE, Ricardo Cavalcanti DUARTE, Alessandro Leite CAVALCANTI, Érika de Morais BELTRÃO

Aim: This study aimed to verify the prevalence of malocclusion in children aged 12 to 36 months, attending public daycare centers in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba. Methods: The sample consisted of 292 children, 161 boys (55.1%) and 131 girls (44.9%) randomly selected from various daycare centers. They were all examined in their daycare centers environments under natural illumination and the findings entered into a pre-structured form, carried out by one calibrated examiner (Kappa = 0.85), concerning overbite, overjet, anterior open bite and posterior crossbite. The data were analyzed through the statistical program SPSS. Results and Conclusions: The prevalence of malocclusion in the sample was 40.7%, with anterior open bite detected in 35.6%, posterior crossbite in 5.1%, and moderate overjet and overbite in 35.5% and 24.7%, respectively. With the development of the occlusion, the prevalence of anterior open bite increased, with the results draw attention to the magnitude of the problem in childhood.

Keywords: Epidemiology. Malocclusion. Infant. Child preschool.

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