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Self-perceived orthodontic treatment need evaluated through 3 scales in a university population
C Flores-Mir1, P W Major, F R Salazar
1Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Room 4051A, Dentistry/Pharmacy Center, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2N8. carlosflores@ualberta.ca
Objective:
To evaluate the self-perceived orthodontic treatment need in a university population evaluated through 3 scales that used different approaches.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey.
Setting:
University dental clinic, Lima, Peru, 2001.
Materials And Methods:
Questionnaires that gathered perceptions on dentofacial aesthetic perception and orthodontic treatment need were applied to a randomly selected sample (329) of first year university students (729). Subjects undergoing orthodontic treatment at the time of examination were excluded.
Main Outcome Measures:
Aesthetic component (AC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN), Oral Aesthetics Subjective Index Scale (OASIS) and a visual analogue scale (VAS) were used.
Statistical Analysis:
Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation test, Kruskall-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used.
Results:
For the AC, 87.5% were in the "without treatment need" category, 10.6% in the "borderline need" category and 1.8% in the "treatment need" category. The mean AC score was 3.02 (+/-1.49). The mean OASIS score was 11.81 (+/-4.84), and the VAS score was 40.16 (+/-18.16). Correlations between the 3 self-assessment scales were moderate (AC-OASIS 0.416, AC-VAS 0.541 and OASIS-VAS 0.457). Gender or previous orthodontic treatment had no influence (p<0.05) on the scales.
Conclusions:
Differences in the approaches used by each scale to evaluate the self-perception of the aesthetical arrangement of the front teeth may explain the moderate correlation values.