Investigation of Parents’ Awareness of Early Orthodontic Evaluation and Treatment in Paediatric Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Authors:

ABSTRACT

Aim

This study aims to gauge the level of awareness among parents about the importance, timing, and benefits of early orthodontic assessments for their children.

Material and methods

A questionnaire consisting of 12 questions was created through Google Forms to measure the knowledge about early orthodontic treatment and consultation with the parents of 1821 patients aged 6–11 years admitted to the paediatric service of a training and research hospital and filled out by the parents. The distribution of variables was examined with the Shapiro-Wilk normality test; the independent t test was used in the comparison of paired groups of normally distributed variables; and the chi-square test was used in the comparison of qualitative data. A stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the effective factors for consultation with the orthodontist.

Results

The mean age of the children, the high monthly income, and the educational level of the family of the orthodontist consultant group (yes) were statistically significantly higher than those of the orthodontist non-consultant group (no) (p = 0.0001). The mean total number of children of the orthodontist consultant group was found to be statistically significantly lower than that in the non-orthodontist consultant group (p = 0.003). There was no statistically significant difference between the orthodontist consultant and non-orthodontist consultant groups in terms of their awareness of their children’s dental issues related to tooth position, alignment, or symmetry (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

The present study found a positive relationship between parents’ education and monthly financial income and their knowledge of malocclusions for early orthodontic treatment. Conversely, there was a negative correlation between the number of children parents had and their awareness of malocclusions. The early identification of malocclusions allows orthodontic problems to be corrected with less complex treatment methods.

PLUMX METRICS