Dento-skeletal pathologies in L’Aquila (Italy) primary school children

An epidemiological investigation in 8-11 years old children living in L’Aquila (Italy) area was carried out in order to know the diffusion of dento-skeletal pathologies. The investigation had two main goals: the evaluation of caries and malocclusion prevalence, and the analysis of the dental parameters main responsible for the different alterations of occlusal pathology. The investigation was carried out on a sample of 860 children. The following variables were examined: caries, severe malocclusions, dental classes, coincident or not-coincident midline, lower and upper crowding. The percentage of children with at least one deciduous or permanent carious tooth was 67.3%. In permanent dentition, caries prevalence was nearly 40%, in deciduous dentition was nearly 55.4%. The percentage of children with severe maloccluions was 55.0%with a decreasing trend according to age.