Background: Preventing or intercepting a developing malocclusion in a public health program requires identifying or measuring the degree of malocclusion. The present study aimed to quantify the proportion of Syrian children in Damascus who would benefit from preventive and interceptive orthodontic treatment.
Materials and methods: In total, 1096 children (431 boys and 665 girls) of grade 1 up to grade 3 from 16 government elementary schools in Damascus city were evaluated using the index for preventive and interceptive orthodontic need (IPION). On the basis of IPION, the overall scores of children were distributed into three groups - no treatment need, moderate treatment need, and definite treatment need. According to dental development, children were divided into two groups - IPION-6 and IPION-9.
Results: Of the enrolled children, 15.4% showed no treatment need, 26.7% showed moderate treatment need, and 57.9% showed definite treatment need. Comparison between male and female children indicated no significant effect on the overall treatment need distribution (P=0.439). The IPION groups had a significant effect on treatment distribution (6 vs. 9, P=0.038); the IPION-9 scores were significantly higher than the IPION-6 scores.
Conclusion and recommendations: The prevalence of preventive and interceptive orthodontic needs is unsatisfactorily high in Syrian children, which emphasizes the importance of including preventive and interceptive orthodontic treatment in the local dental healthcare program.