Malocclusion and perinatal factors: A retrospective study

Aim: To evaluate the relationship between perinatal risk factors, including use of pro-and antilabordrugs, and development of dental malocclusion. Methods: Forthis retrospective cohort study, 31 patients with malocclusion (test group) and 31 control subjects were recruited.All study participants were children (aged 6-8 years) with deciduous or mixed dentition. The children’s mothers responded to a questionnaire regarding their perinatal experiences, which was administered byan interviewer who was blinded to the study aim. Following identification of significantly associated variables by univariate analysis, potentially confounding variables were included in the multivariate analysis of significant variables to account for possible bias. Results: No association between breastfeeding and childhood malocclusion risk was found. Pregnancy less than 9 months appeared to enhance malocclusion risk(odds ratio [OR]: 3.48) despite lack of statistical significance. Use of tocolytic drugs was strongly associated with malocclusion risk (OR: 135, 95% CI: 21.0-872), whereas firstborn delivery exhibited a much weaker association (OR: 3.71, 95% CI: 1.03-13.4). Birth by cesarean delivery (OR: 0.446) and same position of fetus during last two months of pregnancy (OR: 0.225) seemed to be slightly protective against malocclusion risk, although the lack of association was not significant. Conclusion: Risk of childhood malocclusion is very strongly associated withprolonged use of beta tocolyticsduring pregnancy. Our study sheds light on the impact of various perinatal risk factors on occurrence of the fetal stomatognathic alterations that ultimately result in malocclusion during childhood.