Self perceived oro-facial behaviour and malocclusion among young adults in Hyderabad city.

Background: Aesthetic alterations in the face can be self-perceived and can affect quality of life in young adults.

Objective: To assess the impact of malocclusion on self- perceived oro-facial behaviour among young adults.

Methods: A Cross sectional study was conducted among 638 young adults (aged 18-21 years) of Hyderabad city. One college from each of the five zones of the Hyderabad city (five colleges) were selected by simple random sampling procedure. A 21-item Oro-facial investment scale (OFIS) questionnaire assessing self-perceived oral health knowledge, attitude, practice and Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) assessing the severity of malocclusion was used. Data were analysed with standard statistical software (SPSS, Statistical package for the social sciences, version 20.0). p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Males had higher mean scores for knowledge (2.90 ± 0.49) than females (2.73 ± 0.82) and was statistically significant (p = 0.002). No statistically significant gender differences were found in relation to attitude and practice. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was a significant difference in all the three scores (knowledge, attitude, practice) with respect to age, with significantly high score for knowledge and practice among 18 year old subjects (p = 0.0001; p = 0.0003 respectively) and attitude among 21 year old subjects (p = 0.0049). No statistically significant age, gender differences were found in relation to DAI scores. Upon correlation, DAI significantly and positively correlated with knowledge (p = 0.03) and attitude (p = 0.0001).

Conclusion: This study has shown significant impact of malocclusion on the self-perceived oro-facial behaviour.