Prevalence of malocclusion, oral parafunctions and temporomandibular disorder-pain in Italian school children: an epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of malocclusion, temporomandibular disorders, oral parafunctions is highly debated in children population.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of malocclusion, self-reported oral parafunctions and temporomandibular disorder-pain in Italian schoolchildren, and to assess the association between the examined factors.

METHODS: 700 children aged 9-11 years old were selected among six public Schools in Campania region(Italy). Molar relationship, overjet, overbite and cross-bite were assessed through a clinical examination. Furthermore, the subjects were demanded to fill in a validated questionnaire for temporomandibular disorder-pain screening and the short form of the Oral Behaviors Checklist. Descriptive statistics was used to report the frequencies. The associations between occlusal traits, oral parafunctions and temporomandibular disorder-painwere analysed with a Pearson chi-square test, as expressed by odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals. The significance level was set at P<0.05.

RESULTS: Molar Class I was the most frequently encountered molar relationship, followed by molar Class II,subdivision and molar Class III. Increased overjet was more common than negative overjet. Posterior cross-bite was observed in 12% of children. Temporomandibular disorder-pain was recorded in 14.7% of subjects. High frequency of oral parafunctions were reported in21.3% of subjects. A significant association was found between temporomandibular disorder-pain and negative overbite.Cross-bite and high frequency of oral parafunctions were associated with temporomandibular disorder-pain.

CONCLUSION: The current results show that malocclusion,self-reportedoral parafunctions and temporomandibular disorder-pain are frequent findings amongItalian school children, and that some occlusal factors and high frequency of oral parafunctions might be associated with temporomandibular disorder-pain. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.