Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of nasal septal deformities among Turkish school children, in the city of Kahramanmaras in Turkey.
Methods: Study included 1234 Caucasian children attending pre-school, primary and secondary schools. All of the children underwent nasal examinations. Pathological septal deformities were grouped into seven types by using Mladina's classification. The differences among the types of nasal septal deformity (NSD) and between sexes were tested by chi(2)-test for independent samples.
Results: The overall prevalence of NSD has been found to be 34.9%. For the age groups, the prevalence of NSD was 16.5% in pre-school children, 38.7% in primary school children and 39.9% in secondary school children. Type 1 NSD was the most commonly seen deformity among all age groups. Anterior deformities (types 1 and 2) were the most commonly encountered types in pre-school children, but the occurrences of the posterior deformities (types 3-5) was relatively increased as the age increased. Neither the distribution of NSD types nor the overall prevalence showed any statistically significant difference between both sexes.
Conclusion: We found that the prevalence of NSD and the occurrence of the posterior deformities was relatively increased as the age increased. Our study may reflect the prevalence of septal deviation in Turkish children in Kahramanmaras, an eastern Mediterranean city of Turkey. However, further studies throughout the country are needed.