ABSTRACT
An epidemiological survey of randomly selected school children led to Abidjan in three public schools made it possible to determine the prevalence of the rhinopharyngeal diseases in presence of malocclusions. It is an exploratory study jointly undertaken by two teams of specialists in ORL and Orthodontics within a sample of African schoolchildren old of 5 to 21 years. The results showed the presence of malocclusions in 73.30% of the cases (N = 220). The rhinopharyngeal diseases account for 38.3% (N = 115). At the subjects carrying a malocclusion the rhinopharyngeal diseases are 48.30% and they are dominated by the allergic chronic rhinitis (40%) followed obstructive hypertrophic tonsillitis (16.5%). However, these states which cause certainly a nasal obstruction involving an oral breathing do not cause inevitably malocclusion. We cannot thus affirm unambiguous a bond between malocclusions and rhinopharyngeal diseases (p > 0.05). They are nevertheless as many indications to question the patient on other symptoms and to refer to an ORL specialist. Our investigation being limited to the occlusal study, it seems essential to us to continue these analyses to detect the possible predisposition of certain patients to develop dento-skeletal anomalies in the presence of rhinopharyngic diseases.
