Need for preventive and interceptive intervention for malocclusion in 3--5-year-old Finnish children.

The need for preventive and interceptive intervention for malocclusion was studied in a sample of 931 Finnish children aged 3--5 years. Orthodontic intervention was estimated to be needed for 14.4% of the children due to crossbite or functional crossbite of the anterior or lateral segments, or to the early loss of primary molars with an observed tendency to space closure. Education was needed for 2.7% of the children in cases of finger-sucking, and restorative caries therapy for 12.2% of the children in cases with carious primary molars. The need for further inspection in order to follow up development was noted in 21.2% of the children. The indications occasioning this consideration were the numerical variation of primary teeth (1.4%), joined primary teeth (0.8%), the early loss of primary molars without observed risk of space closure (0.2%), luxated and exarticulated primary incisors (5.5%), true Class III (Angle) malocclusion (0.4%), and the dummy-sucking habit (13.1%).