Evaluation of the Prevalence of Dental Anomalies in Children in the Canton of Sarajevo

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dental anomalies in preschool and school children of the Canton of Sarajevo and differentiation of the relative share of hereditary and nonhereditary factors in the phenotypic expression of dental anomalies. Subjects and Methods: We analyzed a sample of preschool children and school children of both sexes from six kindergartens and six elementary schools in the Canton of Sarajevo. The study included a total of 740 children, out of which 270 were preschool children (123 boys, 147 girls), and 470 school children (231 boys, 239 girls). The prevalence of dental anomalies was estimated according to frequency of occurance of dental anomalies in the sample. To compare the observed prevalence of certain dental anomalies with European and world populations, the test for proportion differences was used, a variant of the chi-square test with limit of the statistical significance of p <0.05. A significant difference between the subjects according to gender was found using the same test. The statistical analysis was performed using the scientifically verified software MedCalc Ver. 9.2.0.0. Results: There was a tendency toward increase of dental anomalies in children of female sex, based on the observed sample of preschool children. The following percentage distribution of dental anomalies was found: macrodontia (27%), fusion (24%), hypoplastic type of Al (13%), microdontia (13%), hypocalcification type of AI (10%), hypodontia (8%) and gemination (5%). The following percentage representation of various dental anomalies was determined in a sample of school children: hypodontia (42%), macrodontia (27%), microdontia (25%), hypoplastic type of Al (4%) and fusion (2%). Conclusion: In a sample of preschool children, dental anomalies were observed in 14.8% and among school children this percentage was 11.7% of the total number of subjects. The percentage of dental anomalies in children in the Canton of Sarajevo was compared with reference data from the literature and was within the expected range.