Prevalence of malocclusions in a young Brazilian population.

Malocclusions are generally treated in adolescents and adults, but they are established at an early age. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of malocclusions in a young Brazilian population. The sample included 926 children, 8 to 12 years old, attending 5 public schools in the state of Goias, Brazil The type of occlusion was visually determined during the oral exam and statistical analysis, Chi-square test, was performed to correlate the prevalence of malocclusion with gender and with age. 819 patients out of the 926 patients had some type of malocclusion. From those, 513 patients had a class I malocclusion, 201 patients were classified as class II malocclusion, and 105 patients were class III malocclusion. Vertically, 62 patients showed a deep bite and 61 patients had an open bite. Transversely, 40 patients presented a bilateral posterior crossbite, 54 patients had a posterior crossbite on the left side, and 39 patients had a posterior crossbite on the right side. No significant correlation between gender and malocclusions was found and the number of patients with malocclusions between boys and girls were similar. Considering the three spatial planes, there is a high prevalence of malocclusions among the young Brazilian population. Therefore, the dental community must improve health policies and treat malocclusions earlier.