A STUDY ON OCCLUSAL PATTERNS OF HANDICAPPED PERSONS

심신장애자의 교합양상에 관한 연구

The following results were abtained based on the research of the occlusal patterns among 1074 handicapped persons (cerebral palsy: 46, mental subnormality: 619, deafmute: 285, blind: 111, childish autism:8, cleft lip and cleft palate:3, polimyelitis:2) of the age between 6 and 23 in Chollanamdo, Korea, in comparison with a normal group of 1048 children of the age between 6 and 15 selected at random in J primary school in Gwang-ju City. 1. According to Angle's malocclusion classification, all the handicapped groups, except the cerebral palsy and the blind, showed a higher prevalence of malocclusion than that of the normal. Especially the prevalence of Class II, devision 1 malocclusion in the cerebral palsy was the highest, and the prevalence of Class III malocclusion in all the handicapped groups was higher than that of the normal group. Among these groups the highest prevalence of Class III malocclusion was in the Down's syndrome group. 2. On the the abnormal pattern of the anterior region, there was no significant difference $(P\leqq0.05)$ between the normal and the cerebral palsy, the deafmute, and e blind. The open bite $(7.27{\pm}1.04\%)$ and the cross-bite $(32.7{\pm}6.33\%)$ of the Down's syndrome wire higher than that of the normal, and the forward position of the mandible could be recognized in the Down's syndrome group. 3. On the midline position of the dentition, all the handicapped showed the same percentage of deviation, but the degree of mandibular shift to the right $(20.00{\pm}5.39\%)$ or left $(10.91{\pm}4.20\%)$ was higher than that of the normal only in the Down's syndrome group. 4. On the abnormal pattern of the posterior region, the cross-bite of the Down's syndrome was higher than that of the normal by $20.00{\pm}5.39\%$, the cross-bite of the cerebral palsy and the cross-bite and the open bite of the mental subnormality were slightly higher than that of the normal. The other handicapped groups showed no significant difference $(P\leq0.05)$ to the normal.