Prevalence of Malocclusion and Occlusal Traits in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the prevalence of malocclusion in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and to determine the most common occlusal traits.

The present cross-sectional study was conducted among 7-15 years old children with ASDs and randomly selected healthy children with the same demographic characteristics. Molar relationship, lip incompetence, overbite, overjet, midline deviation, crossbite, and crowding/spacing were recorded. A descriptive analysis was performed for all variables. A comparison of the presence or absence of malocclusion traits between children with and without ASDs was assessed using the chi-square test. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) to assay various parameters between autism and non-autism group.

A total of 96 patients were assessed, 47 patients in the ASD group, and 49 in the control (non-ASD) group. The results showed no significant difference between the ASD and control groups in terms of the overall prevalence of malocclusion (P>0.05). However, the prevalence of increased overjet and Class II molar relationship was significantly higher in the ASD group compared to the control group (P=0.03). Patients in the control group showed a higher prevalence of midline deviation (P=0.001).

Despite a higher prevalence of overjet and Class II molar relationship in children with ASDs, the prevalence of malocclusion was not higher in this group of patients.