Prevalence of Malocclusion among School children in Benin City, Nigeria

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of malocclusion in benin city. a total of 441 school children, 229 males and 212 females of mean age 13.52 years ± 1.83 who had no previous history of orthodontic treatment were assessed for occlusal, space and dental anomalies. angle's classification was used to assess buccal sagittal relationships. the results showed that 15.9% of the subjects had normal occlusion, 80.7% had angle's class i and 1.1% had angle's class ii div 1, 0.5% had angle's class ii div 2 and 1.8% angle's class iii malocclusion. increased overjet and overbite was observed in 24.7% and 9.8% respectively. anterior open bite was present in 4.1% while crossbite was found anteriorly and posteriorly in 7% and 4.5% respectively. crowding in the upper (11.1%) and lower anterior segment (12%) were similar while spacing was more prevalent in the upper (29.9%) than the lower anterior segment (10.7%) with midline diastema present in 19.5%. the occlusal traits were not influenced by gender difference (p>0.05). the survey revealed predominance of class i malocclusion among nigerian children in benin city with their occlusal traits comparable to those reported from other nigerian geo-political regions.