Prevalence and Etiology of Midline Diastema among Sudanese University Students

Maxillary midline diastema is one of the common esthetic problems appearing in deciduous dentition and affecting adults irrespective of gender and ethnicity. This study aimed to determining the prevalence, etiological factors and acceptance of midline diastema among a sample of Sudanese university students in Khartoum city.  A cross sectional descriptive study carried out for 2200 (1706 females, 494 males) Sudanese university students 1823 years old. A radiograph taken for each student diagnosed with midline diastema to prohibit the etiological factors.  The prevalence of midline diastema was recorded 7.3% (7% maxillary, 0.2% mandibular and 0.1% both maxillary and mandibular) It occurs more frequently in females (8% than male (4.7% Majority of students 112(70% have family history of midline diastema (70.1% female and 69.6% male) Fifty six percent of the students were not considering midline diastema as an esthetic problem (52.6% female and 78.3% male) Only 10.6% from the students with midline diastema had speech problem (11.7% female and 4.3% male)  The prevalence of midline diastema in this sample is evident and analogous to the conclusion reported in previous studies among different populations. The result gives evidence regarding the enormity of the midline diastema. However, burly conclusion not strained since the studied sample is not envoy to the entire Sudanese population. Additional study is obligatory with a great sample collected from different areas in Sudan.  Midline Diastema; University Students; Orthodontist, Orthodontics Department, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Khartoum, Sudan. Associate Professor, Head department of Orthodontic, Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Khartoum, Sudan.  Head department of Orthodontic, Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Khartoum, Sudan.  Midline diastema is a dento alveolar disorders that cause special concern to parents and patients  It is also known as open teeth or gapped teeth [2] It is defining as anterior midline spacing greater than 0.5 mm between the proximal surfaces of adjacent teeth  Nainar define true midline diastema as one without periodontal/periapical involvement and with the presence of all anterior teeth in the arch  Whereas, Attia described it as spaces of varying magnitude between the crowns of fully erupted maxillary or mandibular central incisors  Indian Journal of Dental Education Volume 9 Number 1, January March 2016 Worldwide, the Prevalence of midline diastema in early mixed dentition is normal condition appears in 48.8% of children and decrease with age [6,7] Whereas, among adults it ranges from 1.6 to 28% [2,4,812] and more common in maxillary arch and among males  Mandibular midline diastema occurred more in male (90.9% than female (9.1% in contrast maxillary midline diastema occurred more in females (65.3% than males (34.7% [2] It well known that black population has higher incidence of maxillary midline diastema (5.5% compared to the White population (3.4% and Chinese (1.7% [13] The etiological factor of midline diastema is multi factorial phenomenon [4, 5, 14, 15] It occurs as results of dental defect such as abnormality in the size, shape or number of teeth, periodontal defect; hypertrophic fibrous frenum or muscular defect in the size of tongue  A possible genetic basis as well suggested, with greater role of environmental factors in the black than the white population  If diastema persist after the eruption of permenant canines, etiologic factors