Orthodontic status and treatment need of 12-year-old South African children

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the orthodontic status and treatment needs in a sample of 12-year-old children using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI). Method: The sample comprised 6142, 12-year-old children from seven of the nine provinces of South Africa. For each subject the standard demographic information was collected, after which an intra-oral examination using the DAI criteria was performed. Prior to the survey the examiners were calibrated and trained and only examiners with an agreement score greater or equal to 80% were included in the study. Results: The results showed that 47.7% of the children in the sample presented with good occlusion or minor malocclusion, just over 52.3% presented with identifiable malocclusion, a DAI score larger than 26. Of these, 21.2% had definite malocclusion, 14.12% had severe malocclusion and 16.89% had or handicapping malocclusion. The results also indicate that there was significantly (p<0.05) more girls (50.1%) in the group with a DAI score ‘13 – 25’ than boys (44.8%), implying that there are more girls than boys with a normal occlusion. For Blacks there were significantly more pupils in the group with a DAI score ‘13 – 25’ and significantly less in the group with a score of ‘36+’. Indicating the occurrence of more normal occlusion and less severe malocclusion in Black children. The opposite pattern was observed for Coloureds. No significant differences were observed in the prevalence and severity of malocclusion for the variables location type and employment status of breadwinner. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate a high prevalence of malocclusion in 12-year-old South African children. Malocclusion as defined in this study was found to be significantly associated with the different population groups in South Africa and gender, but not with location type or the employment status of parents.