An epidemiological survey of occlusal anomalies among secondary school children in Ibadan, Nigeria.

To assess the prevalence of some of the occlusal anomalies in Ibadan, Nigeria, an epidemiological survey of 644 secondary school children aged 12-18 years (mean age, 14.73 +/- 1.17 S.D.) was done. The sample consisting of 341(53%) males and 303(47%) females was randomly selected. About 66% were from the middle social class while 34% belonged to the working class. Scissors bite recorded the highest prevalence (6.7%) and cross bite was next with 2.2%. No statistically significant associations were found between the occlusal anomalies and socio-economic class (p > 0.05). No statistically significant gender differences were found in relation to the anomalies (p > 0.05). The prevalences of the occlusal anomalies studied were generally lower than those among northern Nigerian children.