Analysis of occlusion and its correlation with gender in primary and mixed dentition of pre-school and school children of Hazaribag city – A pilot study

The purpose of this pilot study was to analyse the prevalence of occlusion in primary and mixed dentition and correlate it with gender among pre-school and school children of Hazaribag city of Jharkhand. A total of 408 children participated in the study. Out of which, 202 children of 3-5 years age and 206 children of 7-11 years were selected from schools in Hazaribag city of Jharkhand., India, and their occlusion was recorded based on the terminal planes. Data were statistically analysed applying Chi-square test using SPSS software. The most prevalent occlusion seen in the present study for Primary Dentition was Mesial Step plane (69.3%) followed by Flush Terminal plane (28.7%) and Distal Step (2%) respectively and the results were statistically significant. A significant correlation was also noted with gender. Males showed more Mesial Step plane (72.6%) than females (65.6%) and order of occurrence of occlusion was same in both the sexes. The most prevalent occlusion seen in the present study for Mixed Dentition was Class I (94.7%) followed by Class II (4.4%) and Class III (0.9%) respectively and the results were statistically significant. A non-significant correlation was also noted with gender. Males showed slightly more Class I (94.8%) than females (94.5%) and order of occurrence of occlusion was same in both the sexes. The Mesial Step plane is significantly more prevalent in preschool children and Class I occlusion is significantly more prevalent in school children of Hazaribagh.