Prevalence of malocclusion in a Qatari Population

Background: 

The dental malocclusion can be considered as an esthetic and functional concern in youth and adults. It can also affect the physical, psychological and social wellbeing.

Objectives:

To evaluate the prevalence and severity of malocclusion occurrence in an Orthodontic Qatari population between ages of 9 to 36 years at Orthodontic Department of Queen Dental Center, Doha Qatar.

Methods:

This was an observational type cross study which was carried out in 304 patients, 105 males (34.53%) and 199 females (65.47%) attending Queen’s orthodontic clinic over a three-year period from 2007 to 2010. Information obtained on each patient included age, gender, nationality and occlusal variables such as simple skeletal classification, Angle’s dental classification, overjet, overbite, spacing, and crowding.

Results:

The results of this study demonstrated a prevalence of skeletal Class I (69.4%), Skeletal Class II (23.6%) and skeletal Class III (6.9%) relationships as evaluated by cephalometric (Steiner’s and Witt’s) analysis.

Dental cast analysis showed that (50.6%) presented with Class I, (37.1%) presented with Class II (28.9% with Div 1 and 8.2% with Div 2) and 37 (12.1%) presented with dental Class III Angle’s malocclusion. 5% of the cases presented with bimaxillary dentoalveolar protrusion, while the prevalence of upper canine impaction was 1.3%. Open Bite was reported in 5.59% of the cases. 26.3% of the cases presented with anterior crossbite, mainly crossbites were associated with patients presenting with Class I malocclusion. There was no correlation found between age or gender with the presented malocclusion.

Conclusions:

Since the Qatari society is an inbred, perhaps, that’s why the majority of Qatari orthodontic patients (69.8%) presented with little orthodontic treatment need. The significance of dental esthetics was considered as an important psychological factor in orthodontic treatment need.