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| Year : 2018 | Volume
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| Issue : 1 | Page : 128-129 |
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| The prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in schoolgoing children of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, India |
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Amit Rekhi1, Aaron F Gomes2, S Meru3
1 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Uttaranchal Dental and Medical Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
2 Department of Periodontics, Uttaranchal Dental and Medical Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
3 Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Uttaranchal Dental and Medical Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
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| Date of Web Publication | 12-Feb-2018 |
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How to cite this article:
Rekhi A, Gomes AF, Meru S. The prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in schoolgoing children of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, India. Indian J Dent Res 2018;29:128-9 |
How to cite this URL:
Rekhi A, Gomes AF, Meru S. The prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in schoolgoing children of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, India. Indian J Dent Res [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Jun 1];29:128-9. Available from: https://www.ijdr.in/text.asp?2018/29/1/128/225243 |
Sir,
We have read the article by Singh et al. regarding the prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in schoolgoing children of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh,[1] with great interest.
We have a serious issue with [Figure 1], the map of India, wherein the boundaries have been misrepresented which is in violation to the laws of the land.[2]
The authors have not mentioned how they calculated the sample size of 2000. Was a pilot study done to calculate it? And if done, what parameters were considered for sample size estimation. How was the uniformity of the sample maintained so as to avoid ethnic disparity since private schools, in particular, tend to have students from other parts of the country who may depict varied forms of malocclusion as compared to the local population thus defeating the objective of the study.[3] The authors have not mentioned whether while choosing the age group of 13–18 years, did they consider the biological or the chronological age since timing of growth spurts correlate more with biologic age.
The authors have used a “WHO-type periodontal probe” and photographs in examining the patient. They have not explained the role of the probe in measuring Index of orthodontic treatment need (IOTN). They mentioned that the IOTN-Aesthetic Component (AC) scores were recorded by patient's self-assessment. Since IOTN-AC is done on a memory recall basis,[4] then why were photographs taken if no orthodontic examiner had to assess them. Details of intraexaminer reliability analysis including the “kappa” values have not been mentioned. For this purpose, they have used 20 students from their college (whose age would definitely be more than that of the study sample), but ideally, the sample should be similar, preferably from the original sample to remove bias. Was the evaluation done before or during the study and were evaluations done at regular intervals since this was a long study of 18 months.
They mentioned that the percentage of gender difference was kept equal; still, there were 56% females and 44% males. Was it a part of the methodology to keep an equal gender distribution and would not this lead to a selection bias? In the conclusion, they state that females showed more perception toward malocclusion on esthetic grounds, but there is no numerical nor percentage-wise evidence stated in the results and analysis to support this statement. This conclusion without evidence can mislead comparative studies.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Singh S, Sharma A, Sandhu N, Mehta K. The prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in school going children of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, India. Indian J Dent Res 2016;27:317-22.  [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
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| 3. | Marques LS, Ramos-Jorge ML, Paiva SM, Pordeus IA. Malocclusion: Esthetic impact and quality of life among Brazilian schoolchildren. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2006;129:424-7. |
| 4. | Brook PH, Shaw WC. The development of an index of orthodontic treatment priority. Eur J Orthod 1989;11:309-20. |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Amit Rekhi
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Uttaranchal Dental and Medical Research Institute, Mazri Grant, Haridwar Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijdr.IJDR_589_16
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