Orthodontic status and treatment need of 12-year-old children in South Africa using the Dental Aesthetic Index.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in a sample of 12-year-old South African school children using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI), and to assess the relationship between malocclusion and certain socio-demographic variables.


METHODS
The sample comprised 6142, 12-year-old children attending school in seven of the nine provinces of South Africa. For each subject the standard demographic information such as gender, population group, location type and employment status of the parents was collected, after which an intra-oral examination for occlusal status using the DAI was performed. Before the survey, the examiners were calibrated and trained and only examiners with an agreement score greater or equal to 80 per cent were included in the final study.


RESULTS
The results showed that 47.7 per cent of the children in the sample presented with good occlusion or minor malocclusion, just over 52.3 per cent presented with identifiable malocclusion, a DAI score larger than 26. Of these, 21.2 per cent had definite malocclusion, 14.1 per cent had severe malocclusion and 16.9 per cent had very severe or handicapping malocclusion. Malocclusion as defined in this study was found to be significantly associated with the different population groups in South Africa, with gender and with dentition stage, but not with the location type or the employment status of parents.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study show a high prevalence of malocclusion in 12-year-old South African children. The findings provide reliable base-line data regarding the prevalence, distribution and severity of malocclusion as well as useful epidemiological data on the orthodontic treatment needs of 12-year-old children in South Africa.
van Wyk
P J
PJ
Department of Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa. pjvanwyk@medic.up.ac.za
Drummond
R J
RJ
D002648:Child; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology