Prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs among adolescents in Najran City, Saudi Arabia

Aim: To determine the prevalence of malocclusions and the need for orthodontic treatment in a sample of school-going adolescents in the Najran city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 1094 school-going Saudi male adolescents. The age range of the sampled adolescents was 13-18 years, and none of them had any history of orthodontic treatment. A survey chart related to malocclusion was designed and filled up after clinical examination by a single experienced and calibrated examiner. The need for orthodontic treatment was assessed using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN).

Result: The present study's findings demonstrated 61.2% of the samples with Angle's Class I malocclusions, 27.5% with Class II, and 11.4% of samples with Class III malocclusion. A significant difference was observed between the different classes of malocclusion (P < 0.001). Most samples presented normal overjet, crossbite, and no reverse overjet, deep bite, or open bite. The number of samples with no treatment need was 573 (52.37%), with slight treatment in 185 (16.91%) samples, moderate treatment needs in 123 (11.24%) samples, and severe and extreme treatment needs were 109 (9.96%) and 104 (9.50%), respectively. A significant difference was observed between the samples with no or slight treatment need (grades 1 and 2), moderate need (grade 3), and definite treatment need (grades 4 and 5) (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The prevalence of malocclusion and IOTNs among the sample of school-going adolescents in the Najran city was 47.63%. However, 9.63% of those samples required immediate attention for orthodontic treatment.