Prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder among patients seeking orthodontic treatment

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a psychiatric disorder with delusions about defects in appearance for which patients seek various treatments. Patients with BDD often seek cosmetic procedures, and orthodontic treatment is one among them. This is the first Indian study to determine the prevalence of BDD in an orthodontic outpatient department.

A total of 1184 patients with varying degrees of malocclusion completed the BDD-YBOCS questionnaire, while an experienced orthodontist assessed the severity of malocclusion with a rating scale.

Sixty-two patients (5.2%) were screened positive for BDD. Most of the BDD-positive patients were single (p value of 0.02) and had multiple previous consultations for orthodontic treatment (p value of < 0.00**) with a gender predilection toward males (p value of 0.00**), and age was not statistically significant with a p value of 0.3.

From our study, the prevalence of BDD among orthodontic patients was 5.2%. The orthodontist should be aware of the high prevalence of BDD among orthodontic patients and identify the expectations of the patient at the time of history taking and refer the patient to a psychiatrist for diagnosis and appropriate management.