To Study the Characteristic of Occlusion of Primary Dentition in Pre School Children-An Epidemiological Study

ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood is the mirror that reflects our future and habits that form part of our childhood are inculcated in our adulthood. Similarly the primary dentition lays down foundation stone for our permanent dentition and determines all the basic characteristics of permanent dentition. The objective of the study is to assess the occlusal characteristics of primary dentition in the age group of 3-5 years in school of Sriganganagar. All the basic parameters, terminal molar relationship, primary canine relationship, the degree of overbite and overjet (in millimeters) were considered in this study. Methods: The study was based on examination of the primary dentition of 600 preschool children aged 3-5 years old from Sriganganagar, India. The sample was selected from nursery school and the age of each child were obtained from school records. Healthy preschool children irrespective of socioeconomic status whose age was between 3-5 years were included in the study. Results: A total of 600 children who met the selection criteria were examined. In this sample size, 136 were of 3 year of age, 152 children were 4 year of age and 321 children were of 5 year of age respectively. Age wise distribution of primary molar relationship for Right side was 83.8% for flush terminal plan, 12.5 % was mesial step, 3.7 % distal step and on left side it was 84.6% for flush terminal plan, 11.8% was mesial step, 3.7% distal step and it was found to be significant however the age wise distribution of canine relationship, overbite and overjet was found to be insignificant. Conclusion: There is an increase in mesial step molar relationship with age, which is statistically highly significant. Distal step molar relationship was less prevalent and was not significant with age. However, the Class I canine relationship was the most prevalent type of deciduous canine relationship than the Class II canine relationship, though the changes in canine relationship with age were not statistically significant. In addition, the changes in overjet and overbite with age were not statistically significant. Also No case of anterior open bite (negative overlap) was observed. Probably larger scale of sample size may be required to assess the incidence of cases of negative overlap.