Relationship of malocclusion severity and treatment fee to consumer's expectation of treatment outcome

Understanding consumer expectations is important if orthodontists are to be successful in marketing their elective services. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between consumer outcome expectations and treatment variables, including cost of treatment and malocclusion severity. The subjects were parents of patients recruited from 9 private orthodontic practices in southwestern Pennsylvania who were entering a single comprehensive phase of orthodontic treatment, characterized by a full fee and complete fixed appliances. The parents completed a questionnaire regarding outcome expectations for their child's orthodontic treatment. Pretreatment orthodontic study models of each child were evaluated with the peer assessment rating. The results of this study suggest that orthodontic consumers have very high outcome expectations. Also, the parents of patients with severe overall malocclusions, overjet, or midline deviations have expectations that exceed probable treatment outcomes. Orthodontists should consider that consumers seeking their services have increased expectations not related to the treatment outcomes.