Occlusal presentations of individuals with sickle cell disease

Abstract

jective: To determine the occlusa l presentations of indiv iduals with sickle cell disease. Materials and methods: O n e hundred a n d thirty five subjects with sickle cell anaemi a and w h o had not previousl y receive d a n y for m o f orthodonti c treatment were recruited from the sickle cell clinic/ Haematological out patient's clinics in four tertiary health care institutions in the south western part of Nigeria. Ethical approva l w a s sought and gotten from cach tertiary institution Ethical Committee s involve in the study. All eligible subjects wer e seated on a comfortable chair had their ora l examination done by a single author unde r natura l lighting illumination for both dental intra - arc h a n d occlusa l parameters and all the data gotten wer e entered into a spread sheet and analyzed with SPS S version 19 compute r software. T h e level of confidenc e w a s set at p < 0.05. Results: T h e a g e rang e w a s 10-4 9 years with majority of the sampl e falling into the a g e rang e 10 - 29 years. T h e sampl e comprise d of 61 male s and 74 females. Eighty nine percent o f the sample s wer e phcnotypically positive for HbS S a nd also commone r amon g t h e femal e sample s (57.0%) . Occlusa l anomalies such a s increase overjet, anterior maxillary arch spacin g a n d maxillar y prognathis m wer e observed in 40.7%, 58.5 % a n d 45.2 % respectively. Conclusion: Ther e is a hig h prevalenc e rat e o f malocclusion amon g HbS S individuals a n d they present with a variety o f occlusa l anomalie s which will require the attention o f the orthodontist in orde r to improv e their aesthetics , functio n a n d psychological wcllbcing