[Psychological study of questionnaire relating to dentition and orthodontic treatment]

Concern of patients for dentition and receptivity of orthodontic treatment was studied by a general population questionnaire. Subjects (general population) consisted of elder elementary school boys and girls (157), junior high school (274) and high school students (90) and adults (45) in Tokushima, Kagawa and Kouchi prefectures. Twenty-three questions, previously selected from forty-seven using the Quantification III for orthodontic patients. Furthermore, ten questions were selected from these twenty-three using the same method and categorized into two groups. Each category was given a meaning. Five answers in each category were given marks: a positive answer was 'point one' and a negative one was 'point zero'. Mean points in each category were compared with eight groups according to age and sex. AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) was used for statistical analysis. The following results were obtained. 1. Two categories were independently identified. One had meaning in relation to concern for dentition and other had meaning in relation to receptivity of orthodontic treatment. 2. Orthodontic patients showed significantly higher points than general population for concern and receptivity. 3. Females in each group showed higher points for concern of dentition in general population, but males showed higher points for receptivity of orthodontic treatment. 4. Junior high school and high school students showed significantly lower points in two categories, in addition, males in this group showed lower points in these categories. 5. There were no significant differences between subjects in three prefectures. It is possible for general population to evaluate instructions or education methods for promoting interest in dentition by this study. Orthodontic patients will also be encouraged by the present study to receive orthodontic treatment.