Soft tissue impingement and lip form in Iraqi teenagers

Abstract

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