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Updated: May 27, 2026
Measuring Maxillary Posterior Tooth Movement: A Model Assessment using Palatal and Dental Superimposition
Published on: February 23, 2024
Orthodontic treatment need in a representative adult cohort
Jens Johannes Bock1, Judith Czarnota, Christian Hirsch
1drbock@web.de
Background And Objective:
There is currently no representative information for central Germany on the prevalence of dental malalignments and jaw discrepancies in permanent dentition. The aim of this study was to describe the extent of tooth and jaw malformations in a representative adult population according to conventional orthodontic indices.
Subjects And Methods:
Three dimensionally (3D)-oriented study casts were measured from a representative sample of adults from the Halle and Leipzig urban areas consisting of 102 men and 143 women aged between 18 and 39 years, yielding a total of 245 volunteers. The index values we determined were the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN), the German Orthodontic Indication Groups (OIG) and the Occlusal Index (OI). The descriptive evaluation of the data and group comparisons (U test, chi(2) test) were performed with SPSS® 13.0.
Results:
More than half of the adults we examined were assessed as needing treatment according to the IOTN (61.6%), the German OIG (59.6%) and the OI (58.4%; intermediate severity = 5.92). We observed no significant differences in age or gender.
Conclusion:
This is the first time that the prevalence of orthodontic findings has been documented for the central German area in a cohort representative of the population. Our results reveal a great need for therapy. As the classifications describe different patient groups, the individual need for treatment is inadequately documented.
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