Attitudes to Malocclusion in a Nigerian School Population

The aim of this study was to determine attitudes to malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need among school children in Lagos, Nigeria. The sample consisted of 120 randomly selected school children, 66 boys (55%) and 54 girls (45%) aged 10-12 years in Lagos State, Southwestern region of Nigeria. The study was conducted with a fixed choice questionnaire and the need for orthodontic treatment was assessed with the WHO-FDI basic method for recording occlusal traits, 1979. The results showed that most children (61.7%) were satisfied with their dental appearance with no significant sex differences while the10-year-old children expressed significantly higher level of dissatisfaction with their teeth arrangement (P<0.05). There was an urgent orthodontic treatment need in 11.7% of the children who had handicapping malocclusion while treatment was also considered necessary in 19.2%. The need for orthodontic treatment was significantly higher in the girls than boys (P<0.05). The half (50%) of the children that needed professionally determined urgent orthodontic treatment expressed satisfaction with the arrangement of their teeth. This study revealed a moderate concern and knowledge of malocclusion among sample of Nigerian children evaluated with a need for orthodontic treatment in less than one third. © CMS UNIBEN JMBR 2006; 5(1): 16-23