MALOCCLUSION AMONG TANZANIAN ADULTS;

An increase for oral health care uptakes in Tanzanian through currentsurge of health insurance establishments has placed adult individuals to seek for orthodonticcare which was nonexistent at their adolescent age. However, prevalence of malocclusion andmagnitude of orthodontic treatment needs not known in Tanzanian adults. This study aimed tosurvey on the prevalence of malocclusion and objective orthodontic treatment needs among theadult population in Tanzania. Study Design: Survey study. Setting: Conducted at KilimanjaroChristian Medical Centre Teaching Hospital, Moshi, Tanzania. Period: January to April in2014. Subjects and methods: A population of 217 nursing student at Kilimanjaro ChristianMedical Centre Teaching Hospital in Moshi, Tanzania were involved for clinical examinationof malocclusion traits. The traits were registered according to the criteria developed by Bjork,Krebs and Solow in 1964. Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) was used to determine orthodontictreatment needs in this group of Tanzanian adults. Data for malocclusion traits were analyzedusing Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) wasused to determine intra-examiner reliability of the discrete variables of Bjork criteria and DAIcomponents. ICC value classification was based on those developed by Landis and Koch in1977. The intra-examiner reliability by ICC in our study was almost perfect (ICC=0.895-1.000).Results: The overall prevalence of malocclusion was 94.4%. Angle’s Class II and Class IIImalocclusion occurred in 12.9% and 6.7% respectively of the studied population. Aplasia orimpacted teeth excluding the last molar occurred in 8.4% of the students. Deep bites occurredin 7% and frontal open bites in 9.3% of the students studied respectively. Crowding in both jawswere found in almost half of the students with more crowding in mandibular incisors. Midlinedisplacement was registered in 38.8% of the students. The populations mean DAI score was27.7 (8.64 ±SD). About 51% of the students had either no need or slight orthodontic treatments.About 49% were found with orthodontic treatment needs ranging from elective, highly desirableto mandatory. Conclusion: The current findings showed presence of malocclusion traits in thispopulation with tendency for some of the traits to increase in severity compared to the findingsin the adolescents studied previously in Tanzania. Higher overall prevalence of malocclusionaccording to Bjork criteria in this population corresponded with considerable orthodontictreatment needs assessed by DAI scores.