Pediatrician’s knowledge and practical approach towards malocclusion in Tamil Nadu, India

: Paediatricians are the first health professional who are more likely to encounter the children’s problems during developing years. Their knowledge and skill to identify the intraoral health issues is of prime importance for making appropriate decisions about referral for early effective intervention, most likely with the maxillomandibular relationship. The aim of the study to evaluate the knowledge and practical approach of the paediatricians towards identification of malocclusion and its effects on oral health issues. A cross sectional questionnaire based study (30 questions) was conducted among 240 randomly selected pediatricians in South district of Tamil Nadu, India, about the knowledge in oral health and malocclusion. This study was carried out for three months time period and response to questionnaires were tabulated in Microsoft Excel software and sent for statistical analysis. This study results indicate that the knowledge about malocclusion and orthodontic treatment among the study population was low. Among the total participants 92% of the pediatricians agreed that their role in identification and prevention of malocclusion is inevitable, but the implementation of the same in their daily practice was comparatively less (16%). This was due to their opinion that identification of malocclusion is more difficult and time-consuming process in their routine daily practice (88%). Pediatrician’s have to be emphasized on the importance of normal relationship of dental structures in children and their knowledge regarding malocclusion should be enlightened to decrease the severity of the same in children during their later period of the life.