“Estudo da severidade das más oclusões e da necessidade de tratamento ortodôntico em estudantes do curso de odontologia da UFC”

Abstract

The malocclusion is considered a problem of public health because, beyond being enough prevalent, it is capable to cause important aesthetic and/or functional damages. However, the adults rarely are enclosed in programs or action of public health that to study problems of dental occlusion, although to be susceptible to the consequences of these disturbances in the same way, or with bigger intensity, that the younger. Moreover, in the most part of the research which search to esteem the prevalence malocclusion and the orthodontic treatment need, it is observed the exclusion of orthodontic treated already people, therefore it supposes that they would present significantly lesser need than the ones that had been never treated. Thus, this dissertation, comprised by two manuscripts, had as objectives: to verify the prevalence and the severity of the malocclusions, beyond determining the orthodontic treatment need, in a group of young adults and, in a second moment, to investigate if to exist difference between individuals with and without orthodontic treatment. For this, it was evaluated a sample composed for 241 individuals, with 17-to-33-years old, regularly registered in the College of Dentistry of the Federal University of the Ceará. The students were divided in two groups (with and without previous orthodontic treatment) and examined according with the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI). In article 1, it was studied the prevalence and the severity of the malocclusions, and also the orthodontic treatment need, of the individuals untreated. In article 2, these same variables were compared between the treat and untreated groups. The results of the manuscript 1 demonstrated that the anterior irregularity on the mandible and the crowding were the most prevalent malocclusions with 94,6% and 91,9%, respectively. The mean DAI score was 25,94 (CI 95% 25,07; 26,81). Little more than the half of the students (51,4%) were classified as without orthodontic treatment need, while 15,3% of the sample presented severe or very severe malocclusion, which implies a highly desirable or mandatory orthodontic treatment need. In the second article, it was observed that, differently of the problems deriving of lack of the space, which it showed lesser prevalent in previously students treated (p<0,001), the majority of the malocclusions was not different between the two groups (p>0,05). The mean DAI of the treated group was 24,77 (IC 95% 24,03; 25,51) and the untreated group was 25,94 (IC 95% 25,07; 26,81). It can be concluded that the malocclusions related with the lack of the space were the most prevalent, although without very severity. The orthodontic treatment need presented no difference statistically significant between treated and untreated students (p>0,05), in spite of the severity malocclusion of the ones treated had been lesser (p<0,05).