Prevalence of Dental Malocclusion and Maxilofacial Deformities in Tehranian School Children

Prevention is considered a general principal in dentistry. Therefore, primary information for planning preventive programs and then implementation of therapeutic action are indispensable. Since the occurance of malocclusion very in different races, figures offerred by the foreign researchers may not generalized to be Iranian society. By this research, multiple steps random sampling was applied in 1994 in Tehran, to studys 2519 students between 12-15 year old. Descriptive method was used for this research and observation and interview selected as executive technique. The results show that among studied samples, 91.4% suffer from malocclusion and 8.6% have normal occlusion: class 1, 63.1 %; class 2.Div 1, 13.9%; class 2.Div 2, 7.7%; class 3 (pseudo), 3.7%; class 3 (true), 3.1 %; facial asymmetry, 2.6% This study shows high prevalence of malocclusion in Iranian children. With determination of rate and type of malocclusion, and providing necessary information to the relevant organizations, it is possible to recognize the extend of the problems of malocclusion and its occurance in the Iranian society and to provide the required ground for therapeutic potentialities and prevention of this disorders.