Motivation, perception of the impact and level of satisfaction with orthodontic treatment

Objectives: To determine the underlying motivation for orthodontic treatment; to assess the perception of the impact of orthodontic treatment on the patients who undergo the treatment; to assess the level of satisfaction in regard to the treatment given. Methods: Observational cross-sectional study. Non-probabilistic sample: 111 individuals with validated replies to the survey created/placed online between 15/11/2012 and 15/01/2013 (Google docs; one answer per IP); The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics vs.20.0, considering a significance level of 0.05 for all statistic inference situations. Results: 111 validated replies were obtained. The motivations given for undergoing the treatment were issues of an aesthetic nature (44.14%), referral by dentist (36.04%), problems of oral health (16.22%), the opinion of family members and/or friends (2.70%) and other motives (0.90%). The age at the time of the survey and at the time of treatment, the duration of the treatment and the level of satisfaction with the results did not differ significantly by gender. In general, the respondents stated that they were satisfied with the results of the treatment and those whose initial perception was at least "satisfied" showed a significant improvement in the level of satisfaction (the median increased from "satisfied" to "very satisfied"). Conclusion: Aesthetics is the preponderant factor in the motivation for undergoing orthodontic treatment. After undergoing orthodontic treatment, the individuals showed a significant improvement in the perception of their smile and their teeth, this result being associated with a positive perceived impact on 93.69% (IC95%:87.34%-97.13%) of the respondents that underwent such a treatment. (C) 2016 Sociedade Portuguesa de Estomatologia e Medicina Dentaria. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.