Prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need in children and adolescents in Bogota, Colombia. An epidemiological study related to different stages of dental development

TLDR

The study aimed to assess the prevalence of malocclusion among Bogotanian children and adolescents across severity levels, sex, and dental development stages, to evaluate orthodontic treatment need. A random sample of 4,724 untreated children aged 5–17 was stratified by deciduous, early mixed, late mixed, and permanent dentition, with registrations following Björk et al.'s method and treatment need evaluated using the Swedish National Board of Health index. Citation: Björk et al.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of malocclusion in a population of Bogotanian children and adolescents in terms of different degrees of severity in relation to sex and specific stages of dental development, in order to evaluate the need for orthodontic treatment in this part of Colombia. A sample of 4724 children (5–17 years of age) was randomly selected from a population that attended the Dental Health Service; none had been orthodontically treated. Based on their dental stages the subjects were grouped into deciduous, early mixed, late mixed and permanent dentition. The registrations were performed according to a method by Bjõrk et al. (1964). The need for orthodontic treatment was evaluated according to an index used by the Swedish National Board of Health.