Prevalence of malocclusion in primary school with different socioeconomic level in Gharbia Governorate

Abstract Objective Malocclusion is one of the most prevalent dental anomalies; it may negatively affect quality of life of affected children and worsen their social interaction. This study aims to assess the prevalence of child malocclusion in public and private schools in the Gharbia governorate in Egypt across various socioeconomic strata. Patients and methods The target group is primary school students aged 10–12 years old in Tanta city. Careful data about general and dental history was collected then intraoral examination was performed to detect the malocclusion in 10 private school students and 110 public school students. Then, data were collected and analyzed. Results Most high school students presented with different malocclusion situations, 61.5% having class-I malocclusion, 14.9% having class-II malocclusion and finally 23.6% having class-III malocclusion. The proportion of children with anterior cross-bite single and multiple in public schools is 9.3 and 5.33%, respectively, whereas the corresponding rate for kids in private schools is 9.2 and 5.2%. One percent of public school elementary children and 4% are involved in thumb suckling habit, while for mouth breathing habit for public school children, the percentage was 13.3 and 15.6% for private school children. 12.4% of pupils in private schools and 6.7% of children in public schools, respectively, had experienced trauma with a statistically significant difference. Conclusion Malocclusion impacted the majority of the students that were tested, the most common type of malocclusion was class-I crowding in both public and private schools. Mouth breathing is the oral behavior that causes the most dental problems in students. Finally, it is advised to conduct additional research on all malocclusion items.