Assessment of Factors Affecting Adolescent Patients' Compliance with Hawley and Vacuum Formed Retainers

Success of orthodontic retention with removable retainers almost entirely depends on patients' compliance.

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between adolescent orthodontic patients' compliance and various clinical and social factors.

The data were collected from 77 orthodontic patients aged 7-11 years old who had finished the full fixed appliance therapy. Hawley's retainers were used in 34 patients and 43 patients used Vacuum Formed Retainers (VFRs). The subjects completed a questionnaire including several identifiers allowing the respondents to be classified into subgroups. They were also asked to indicate how long they wore their retainers during the day, by writing the number of hours in the report-card for the next three months. Comparison of the results was performed by one-way ANOVA and independent sample-t tests.

No significant differences were found between males and females. Type of the retainer, patients' grade of study, mothers' occupation, clinicians' and parents' attitudes and filling the report cards had significant effect on mean wear hours per day. When compliance of the patients was assessed according to treatment location, Living place, parents' educational degrees and ethnicity, no significant differences could be found.

The adolescent patients' compliance was greater with VFRs than with Hawley's retainers. Parental attitude and doctor-patient relationship had a great impact on adolescent patients' compliance.