Awareness and concern about malocclusion among 12-15 year-old children in Moshi, Tanzania.

Abstract

To assess awareness and concern about malocclusion in 12-15 year-olds in Moshi, Tanzania. DESIGN:

A cross-sectional study. SETTING:

Moshi Municipality in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. SUBJECTS:

Two hundred and ninety eight randomly selected Public primary school children aged 12-15 years (158 males and 140 females). RESULTS:

About 56% of the respondents thought their teeth were properly aligned. However only 29.1% of the respondents reported being dissatisfied with the way their teeth appeared in their mouth. About 25% of the respondents found their teeth to have been worse than most of their age-mates. Children who reported to have been teased due to their malocclusion comprised 25.8%. Those who thought it was unpleasant to stay with malaligned teeth constituted 55.7% of the respondents. Subjective orthodontic treatment need was reported by 69.1% of the sample. Majority of the children (75%) were ready to accept orthodontic treatment. There were significant correlations between factors of awareness and those of concern about malocclusion among the subjects. CONCLUSIONS:

In spite of very little orthodontic treatment exposure in this population, awareness and concern about malocclusion was reported by a significant proportion of the children. These findings form a baseline line for future studies on the trends of awareness and concern towards malocclusion in this population. They will also be useful in the planning of orthodontic services in Tanzania.