Early interceptive treatment for the elimination of factors inhibiting dental arch development and mandibular and maxillary growth is applied varyingly by orthodontists, possibly because there is little scientific evidence that such interventions are of actual benefit. The aim of this study was to determine specific factors for treatment need in the early mixed dentition period in order to obtain basic data to support early intervention. The study was part of a larger survey of 8768 children aged between 6 and 17 years. From this sample, 1975 children aged between 6 and 8 years were used to estimate the prevalence of malocclusions using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) during the early mixed dentition period. The results showed that deep overbite and overjet, both more than 3.5 mm, were the most frequent discrepancies, affecting 46.2 and 37.5 per cent of patients, respectively. An anterior open bite was registered in 17.7 per cent, crossbite in 8.2 per cent, and a reverse overjet in 3.2 per cent. A tooth width to arch length discrepancy was recorded in 12 per cent of teeth in the upper arch and in 14.3 per cent in the lower arch. The proportion of children estimated using the Dental Health Component of the IOTN to have a great or very great treatment need (grades 4 and 5) was 26.2 per cent. The higher values of treatment need during the mixed dentition period may account for temporary changes in the dentition and for the discrepancy in overjet and overbite. These discrepancies will be compensated in part during mandibular growth and development of the dental arch. Nevertheless, the findings indicate the early development of progressive malocclusion symptoms which are evidenced in the IOTN and concur with the acronym 'MOCDO' hierarchy (missing, overjet, crossbite, displacement, overbite). This early formation of progressive symptoms inhibiting or disturbing mandibular or maxillary growth or the development of the normal dental arch, i.e. crossbite, reverse overjet and increased overjet with myofunctional disorders, should be treated at an early stage.

Manual skills form only a part of the capabilities required of future dentists, but they are a very important component, which should be tested. With regard to the dental specialties, the present study tested specialty-independent fine motor skills. No objective, practical solution has been found up to now. 88 dental students and, as a control group, 23 medical students were examined in the longitudinal study. In the course of the analysis, 4 fine motor tests were carried out at the beginning of the 2nd and 6th semesters. The tests comprised the tremometer test, the tremometer test with a mirror, the 2-hand sinusoid test and archery using the Game Gear by SEGA. The test devices facilitate primarily the testing of components of accuracy of movements, indirect working methods, and eye-hand coordination. In the comparison of performances on test day A, the medical students' performance was noticeably better. As testing progressed, results showed stagnation in the performance of the medical students and a significant improvement in the performance of the dental students. That means that the test system can be used for a test over the course of study, but not as an initial test.

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This method can be used only in connection with mm. consonants. Speaking the word "Ohio" yielded excessively high values in all methods, so that this word has to be rejected as a speech sample. Cephalometric registration produced values with slight interindividual variations. In practice, however, this method is unsuitable for use with orthodontic patients because of the additional radiation exposure involved in producing an additional lateral cephalogram. For good reproducibility, practicing or frequent repeating of the measuring method prior to definitive measuring is essential.