Sonia Jahan Bithi

Malocclusion is defined as an irregularity of the teeth or a mal relationship between the dental arches beyond the range of what is accepted as normal. It has large impact on individual and society in terms of discomfort, quality of life and social and functional limitations. The etiology of malocclusion may be genetic, environmental or more commonly a combination of them. To determine the prevalence of malocclusion in children aged 8–12 years in the village of Zakigonj, Sylhet district A cross sectional descriptive survey was conducted among rural area (374) school- age children of Sylhet Zakigonj Upazila in Bangladesh. A total of 374 children aged 08-12 year old was examined for Class I, Class II, Class III molar relationship, increased over jet, increased over bite, open bite, crowding, cross bite and spacing after obtaining the written consent from the students, legal guardians and school authorities. The majority 173(70.0%) patients were found malocclusion in age <10 years and 89(70.1%) in age >10 years. Majority 121(69.9%) participants were found Angle’s class I in age <10 years and 75(84.3%) in age >10 years. One hundred six (61.3%) patients were found crowding of malocclusion in age <10 years and 67(75.3%) in age >10 years group. Which were not statistically significant (p<0.05) but increased overjet, open bite, cross bite and spacing were not statistically significant (p>0.05) between two groups. The results suggested that there is increased prevalence of malocclusion among children in the 8–12 years age group. The observation of this study will provide baseline data for implement early interceptive treatment for the elimination of factors inhibiting dental arch development as well as skeletal jaw growth. Keywords: Malocclusion, Village, genetic, environmental