Patterns of occlusion in 3-year-old Danish children

Occlusion and spacing patterns are described for 1,624 3-year-old children living in Gladsaxe, a suburb of Copenhagen. Normal transversal relations were found in 1,396 children, while 214 had crossbite, and 14 had scissors-bite. The sagittal and vertical occlusion were significantly different in the three groups. The sagittal occlusion characters were to a large extent identical in the second primary molar, the canine and the incisor regions in the individual child. Open bite was much more frequent in children with maxillary overjet greater than 4 mm than in children with maxillary overjet greater than or equal to 4 mm. Definite mandibular overjet was diagnosed in three children but 19 had a tendency towards mandibular overjet. The number of dummy suckers was very high and significantly higher among children with crossbite than amoung children with normal transversal relations. Crowding was found in the incisor regions, but very seldom, while total spacing existed in 34.5% of the maxillary and 24.3% of the mandibular arches.