Occlusion of Cerebral-Palsied Children

¹ Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, Indiana

A study was undertaken to provide information concerning occlusion and related problems in cerebral-palsied children. A group of 124 cerebral-palsied children between the ages of 6 and 12 years was examined. The occlusion was evaluated according to Angle's classification. A recording was made of overjet, overbite, openbite, cuspid relationship, crossbite, and midline discrepancies. The examination included a clinical evaluation of the swallowing pattern of each child. The cerebral-palsy classification and I.Q. scores were recorded for each cerebral-palsied child after a comprehensive review of the medical record. The dental findings of the cerebral-palsied children were compared with a control group of 141 noncerebral-palsied children in the same age group.

The cerebral-palsied group had an average increased overjet of 0.8 mm. and an average decreased overbite of 0.5 mm., representing an upward and outward positioning of the maxillary anterior segment. Anterior openbite was present in a similar percentage of both groups, but in the cerebral-palsied group the measurement recorded was more than twice as great as that recorded in the control group.

Forty-four per cent of the cerebral-palsied children exhibited bruxism, which was more than twice the percentage of cases recorded in the control group. The cerebral-palsied children exhibited bruxism most frequently in the daytime, and the habit was most common in the athetoid group. The increased frequency of daytime bruxism appears to be the most significant difference between the cerebral palsy and the control groups.

From this study one can conclude that malocclusion and factors affecting occlusion are not found with greater frequency in cerebral-palsied children.