Prevalence and gender differences of buccally displaced canines of 12 years school children and 18-23 years adults in Shah-Alam, Malaysia

Background: The buccally displaced canines (BDC) are more commonly encountered conditions in orthodontic clinics. It is a positional variation result of several factors such as retained deciduous canines, crowding, and lateral incisors anomalous. Aims: To determine the prevalence and gender differences of one-two-three-four buccally displaced canines in the area of Shah-Alam, Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 399 subjects; was consist of two age groups; 208 subjects of school children aged 12 years and 191 subjects of adults aged 18-23 years were examined clinically to determine the prevalence of BDC. Statistical analysis: The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 16; a Chi-square test was performed to assess the gender differences. Results: No gender differences were found in the school-children group while in the adults group a significant gender difference was found regarding one and four canine displacements (P < 0.05). The prevalence of one-two-three canine displacement was higher significantly between the two groups (P < 0.05). However, the frequency of one canine displacement was higher significantly in adult females and girls (P < 0.05). T