Soft tissue impingement and lip form in Iraqi teenagers

Abstract EN

Background: Soft tissue impingement and lip form have often been overlooked in previous epidemiological surveys.

Materials and Methods : About seven thousand 13 year olds with no history of orthodontic treatment were selected from six governorates (Baghdad the capital, Ninevah, Basrah, Diyala, Anbar and Najaf).

An intra-oral clinical examination was used to assess traumatic overbite causing soft tissue impingement and the lip form of each student.

Results : soft tissue impingement was found in 2.7 % (2.5 % palatally and 0.2 % labially).

Normal lip form was found in 80.7 %, contracting lip form in 14.7 % and lip trap in 4.6 % of the sample.

All the previous were non-significantly related to gender and residency.

Conclusion : iraqi children present a much mre favorable lip form than Western children.