Estudo epidemiológico de ocorrência da má oclusão na dentição decídua de crianças da rede pública e privada do município de Belém-Pará

Abstract

The literature shows that malocclusion can manifest it self from the earliest stages of occlusal development and, in most types morphologies, it shows no self-correction in the later stages of occlusal development. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of malocclusion in deciduous dentition in the city of Belém- PA, examining children from public and private schools, and to check the influence of socio-economic level in the manifestation of malocclusion, so that public policy can be adopted to include preventive and interceptative into oral health services, targeting mainly to benefit the least favoured part of the population. 652 children of both sexes were examined, 3 to 6 years of age in the deciduous dentitions stage, enrolled in pre-schools in the private network and public network of education in Belém-Pará. There was a prevalence of 81,44% of malocclusion, being more common in female children in the private network (p = 0.01). The Class II malocclusion was most prevalent, followed by Class I and Class III. Among the different types of morphological malocclusion, the overbite and the posterior crossbite were more prevalent in children from the private network for both genders, although the overjet and Class II, had a higher occurrence in females only in children from the private network . The Class I and III malocclusion were more common in female children in the public network. The anterior openbite and the anterior crossbite, showed similar trends in both groups of schools for both genders. The early loss of temporary teeth was more prevalent (p=0.000) among children of the public network for both genders. Thus we can conclude that the incidence of malocclusion in deciduous dentition in the city of Belém is very high, in addition the low socio-economic influences the expression of malocclusion because they were more frequent among female children in the private network; and that the occurrence of early loss of temporary teeth in children in the public network still has an alarming rate, due to an inefficient public health policy, which serve at the preventive and interceptative level.