First molar health status in different craniofacial relationships

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between the health status of permanent first molars and different craniofacial relationships among adolescents. STUDY DESIGN This is a retrospective study on patients' records aged 11-15 years. Sex, skeletal relationship, vertical growth pattern, malocclusion, overjet, and overbite were assessed. The health status of permanent first molars was recorded from the orthopantomograms and intraoral photographs as "sound" and "not sound". Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to analyze and correlate the assessed variables. Significance level was set at P<0.05. RESULTS A total of 210 records were evaluated; 81 were male, 68 had Class I and 91 had Class II skeletal relationships. More than half of the subjects had normal (n=67) to moderate deep bite (n=72); normal (n=91), moderately increased (n=54), to severely increased (n=50) overjet; and Class I (n=106) and Class II division 1 (n=75) malocclusion. Significant differences were found in the health status of the permanent first molars with respect to sex (P=0.034), vertical growth pattern (P=0.01), and overbite (P=0.047). Strong correlations were only found between the health status of the permanent first molars and the following variables: sex (P=0.036) and vertical growth pattern (P=0.004). Significant correlation was further found between the upper left first molar health status and sex (P=0.019) and the lower right first molar health status and the vertical growth pattern (P=0.001). No significant association was found with the anteroposterior craniofacial relationships (P>0.05). CONCLUSION Sex difference and vertical growth patterns were found to be potential predictors of the health status of the permanent first molars. No significant association was found with the anteroposterior craniofacial relationships.