Impact of malocclusion on the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of 8 to 10 years old school children

Objective: To investigate the impact of malocclusion on the Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of school children. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among four hundred and twenty five (425) 8-10 years school pupils in Lagos Nigeria. Malocclusion was assessed using the Dental Aesthetic Index while OHRQoL was assessed using the Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ 8-10). Data entry and analyses was done with SPSS Version 23.0. Data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA were used for comparison between variables. Level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: Gender distribution of the study population was; 48.8% (208) males and 51.2% (217) females. The mean age of the participants was 9.23±0.83 and their median age was 9 years. The prevalence of malocclusion according to DAI was 25.9%. Over 70% of the children were found to have no/ or slight need for orthodontic treatment (DAI score < 25), elective treatment was needed in 19.1% of subjects (DAI score 25-30), while in 6.8% of the surveyed population; treatment was highly desirable/mandatory. The differences in the prevalence of malocclusion among the different age groups was observed to be statistically significant (P = 0.038). The overall mean CPQ 8-10 was 19.51±17.1. There was no statistically significant difference in mean CPQ scores between gender (P=0.565), age (P=0.524) and severity of malocclusion (P=0.296) Conclusion: The prevalence of malocclusion in this study was 25.9% with an overall mean CPQ of 19.51±17.1. Higher mean CPQ values were observed with females, older age group and subjects with DAI 31- 35; however, it was not statistically significant.