Orthodontic treatment and socioeconomic status in Danish children aged 11-15 years

The orthodontic situation in 2042 children in 4th to 8th schoolgrades was described by placing each child in one of five orthodontic categories (percentage refers to observed frequencies): I. No anomaly (25%), II. Malocclusion-under observation only (40%). III. Undergoing orthodontic treatment (20%). IV. Orthodontic treatment completed (12%) and V. Orthodontic treatment discontinued (3%). The socioeconomic status of the child's family, determined by the occupation of the father or mother, was described by one of the following five terms: A. Low, B lower middle, C. Middle, D. Upper middle and E. Upper socioeconomic group. The distribution of the orthodontic categories within the socioeconomic groups were found to be almost equal, but three trends could be noted: a slightly higher frequency of malocclusion in the low socioeconomic group; children from the middle socioeconomic group represented a relatively large part of the orthodontic treatment group and children in the two lowest socioeconomic groups showed a greater frequency of discontinued orthodontic treatment than the rest of the children.