The association of dental caries with malocclusions in mixed dentition

Cernei Eduard Radu, Mavru Radu Bogdan, Zegan GeorgetaOrthodontic Department , UMF Iasi, Romania

AbstractAim. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between prevalence of caries and studied malocclusion.Subjects and methods. The study consisted of 420 study-cast with primary dentitions and mixed dentitions. 1997 WHO dental caries criteria were applied to both groups. The existence of an increased caries risk was deducted from the dmft and DMFT indices related to age. Malocclusion in primary and mixed dentitions was classified into seven types. Results. Mean dmft index in subjects with primary was 1.02. DMFT index in mixed dentition was found 4.26. No positive correlation between prevalence of caries and malocclusion could be established in the sub sample with primary teeth only. However, medium correlation in prevalence of malocclusion and caries were found for crowding in the anterior region and deep bite in children with mixed dentitions.Conclusions. With some specific types of malocclusion, however, there is a significant parallelism of high dental caries experience and malocclusion, but this does not mean that there is a causal relationship between caries and malocclusion.