Abstract
Purpose: It has been suggested that the ideal occlusion would contribute to dental caries prevention, and that malocclusion would increase susceptibility to dental caries. In Shanghai, as a type of malocclusion, deep overbite of the deciduous dentition was observed at a high rate (44.5%). In this study, we examined the prevalence of the dental caries of the deciduous dentition in relationship to normal occlusion and deep overbite.
Methods: Four hundred and fifty-one Chinese children (232 boys and 219 girls, aged 2-6 years old, residents of Shanghai) participated in this study. Oral examination was carried out based on the WHO criteria.
Results: The dft of normal occlusion was 3.0 and the dfs was 5.7. On the other hand, group of deep overbite showed low dft and dfs numbers,2.3, and 4.1 respectively. We divided the deciduous dentition into the anterior teeth region and the posterior teeth region and then compared each of them with the normal occlusion group and deep overbite group.
As a result of the statistical comparison, the dft and the dfs of the deep overbite group were clearly lower in the posterior region (Student's t-test, p<0.05).
