Background and aim: Malocclusion can negatively impact the quality of life of children. Therefore, this study assesses the impact of proxy-reported malocclusion and oral health-related quality of life among children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from the parents or guardians' perspectives.
Materials and methods: A self-administered electronic questionnaire was used to assess the correlation between proxy-reported malocclusion conditions during the early mixed dentition stage (children age 6-12 years) and oral health-related quality of life using the OHIP-14 measure. All collected data were analyzed using SPSS.
Results: Among the 353 participants in the study, anterior open-bite was the most common proxy-reported malocclusion with a prevalence of 19%, followed by unilateral posterior cross bite (13.3%). Furthermore, 31% reported that their children sometimes experienced negative impacts on quality of life from malocclusions. The results also show that OHIP-14 scores were significantly associated with all proxy-reported malocclusion (p < 0.05). The highest OHIP-14 score was found to be significantly associated with the presence of deep-bite from parents' or guardians' perspective.
Conclusion: The presence of some proxy-assessed malocclusion was associated with negative impacts on children's oral health-related quality of life. This is very important to consider when assessing the need for orthodontic intervention, especially at this stage as this age is critical in building a child's confidence and self-esteem.
Keywords: Malocclusion; OHRQoL; oral health-related quality of life; proxy-report.