How Do Adult Patients and Orthodontists View Orthodontic Treatment Completion? A Cross-Sectional Study of...

Orthodontic finishing is a preference-sensitive decision point in which patients and clinicians may place different emphasis on satisfaction and clinician-defined finishing standards. This study compared patient and orthodontic clinician perspectives on treatment completion, focusing on how satisfaction is weighted relative to occlusal perfection.

A cross-sectional study used two online surveys (adult patients and orthodontic clinicians) with five-point Likert items. Ordinal responses were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests; selected contrasts were dichotomized (agree 4-5 vs. 1-3) and tested using Fisher's exact tests with odds ratios. Within-clinician paired comparisons used Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Free-text responses were translated and grouped into clinically interpretable categories.

In total, 100 patient and 23 clinician questionnaires were analyzed. Patients tended to disagree with stopping treatment when satisfied if bite/alignment remained imperfect (mean 2.37, SD 1.39; 21.6% agree 4-5), whereas clinicians tended to endorse satisfaction having equal weight to occlusal perfection (mean 3.91, SD 0.95; 69.6% agree 4-5), with a significant distributional difference (p = 4.25 × 10⁻⁶). Clinicians were more likely than patients to endorse the satisfaction-weighted stance when dichotomized (OR 8.27; p = 2.23 × 10⁻⁵). Clinicians also showed a principle-practice tension, endorsing "equal weight" more strongly than comfort ending earlier (paired p = 0.000918). Qualitative responses most often defined success as straightness and improved appearance; burdens centered on time/appointments, with cost a common barrier.

Patients and clinicians differed in how satisfaction-guided treatment completion was viewed and applied. Explicit finishing discussions about residual discrepancies, marginal gains, and time/burden trade-offs may support clearer shared decision-making at treatment completion.