Assessment of Pain, Diet, and Analgesic Use in Orthodontic Patients: An Observational Study

Background/Objectives: Orthodontic treatment offers significant functional and aesthetic benefits, but it often causes discomfort, impacting patients' daily activities, including diet and medication use. The primary aim of this observational study was to assess the influence of orthodontic patients' age, gender, and living environment on pain duration, diet impairment, and analgesic use one week after their first adjustment visit to the orthodontist. Methods: This observational study included a sample of 194 orthodontic patients who completed a questionnaire consisting of six single-choice questions. The questions addressed the following variables: age, gender, living environment, pain duration, diet impairment, and analgesic use. The main inclusion criteria encompassed undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment on the upper arch for one week using a 0.0016-inch superelastic NiTi archwire (American Orthodontics, Sheboygan, WI, USA) and presenting moderate to severe crowding of the upper and lower anterior teeth. Results: Female patients were significantly more likely to experience diet impairment than males (51.9% vs. 33.3%, p = 0.013). Among female patients reporting pain lasting approximately one week, a higher proportion resided in rural areas (25% vs. 6.8%, p = 0.045), whereas male patients reporting the same pain duration predominantly lived in urban areas (12.5% vs. 0%, p = 0.028). Overall, 55.7% of participants used analgesics, with females in rural areas being the most frequent users. Additionally, patients who used analgesics were significantly more likely to experience diet impairment than those who did not (64.3% vs. 49.1%, p = 0.041). Conclusions: Female patients residing in rural areas reported a longer duration of pain, which led to a greater likelihood of experiencing diet impairment and increased consumption of analgesics compared to their counterparts. These findings highlight the need for personalized pain management strategies in orthodontic treatment, especially for patients with increased vulnerability to discomfort.