SURVEY ON AWARENESS ABOUT ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT IN GENERAL POPULATION OF NAGPUR DISTRICT

Dr Atram Harish 1 , Dr Jakati Sanjeev V 1 , Dr Namrata Khetal 2 , Dr PV Hazarey 3 , Dr Mrunal Aley 4 , Dr Achint Chachada 4 and Dr Mugdha Mankar 1 . 1. MDS Orthodontics, Assistant Professor Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Swargiya Dadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Dental College & Hospital Nagpur Maharashtra India. 2. BDS, Swargiya Dadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Dental College & Hospital Nagpur Maharashtra India. 3. MDS Orthodontics Professor & HOD ,Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Swargiya Dadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Dental College & Hospital Nagpur Maharashtra India. 4. MDS Orthodontics Associate Professor, Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Swargiya Dadasaheb Kalmegh Smruti Dental College & Hospital Nagpur Maharashtra India ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(3), 500-504 501 evolutions of indices of malocclusion, information on malocclusion and treatment needs is now being made available from all around the world.

Aims & Objectives:-
There is a paucity of data about the awareness of orthodontic treatment among school children in the Indian context. Therefore the rationale for this study was to assess the awareness of children towards orthodontic problems & its treatment. In this context, the objective of the present epidemiological survey was to assess the awareness of orthodontic problems & its treatment in Nagpur District.

Materials & Methods:-
A cross sectional, observational (non-experimental) descriptive questionnaire survey was conducted in urban population of Nagpur District. The sample size of 2000 people represented the rural population of Nagpur District. The sample was constituted from patients reporting to college OPD, patients from satellite clinics and students from school and college. In this modern era, though general population is aware of a dentist yet many people are unaware of Orthodontics as a speciality dealing with misalignment of teeth. Even if people are aware of orthodontics they hesitate to seek the treatment because of high cost of treatment, long duration of treatment, esthetic concern about placement of orthodontic appliance, extraction of some teeth if necessary. This survey has been formulated to evaluate the concern of general population in seeking orthodontic treatment.
Two age groups were studied i.e. adolescence and adult. People in age group 13-19 years constituted adolescent group & and People in age group of 20-40 years constituted adult group. Children who obtained written informed consent from parents to participate in the study were included. Exclusion criteria used were-history of previous orthodontic treatment, rampant caries, multiple missing teeth, mutilated malocclusion and other craniofacial anomalies like cleft lip and palate, facial hemiatropy, cleidocranial dysplasia etc. An oral health lecture was given to all the children in the school to create awareness about Dental health and Orthodontic treatment.
Statistical data was analysed and categorised according to age and gender. Responses of the people were recorded on a 3 point Likert scale from poor, fair and good. According to the prestructured questionnaire (15 objective questions) data was formulated for assessment of knowledge and awareness of orthodontic treatment. Statistical analysis:-Data was coded and entered into excel sheet. To maintain the data quality (validity) rechecking and cross checking was done during data entry phase. Later, data was transferred into SPSS windows version 16, where cleaning, coding, recording, crosschecking, processing and analysis of the data were done. Simple Descriptive statistics was applied to describe the study variables. The t-test procedure was used to compare means for two groups.

Results:-
There were no statistically significant differences in general information and awareness about the proper age of orthodontic treatment. Gender & Age distribution of the sample participating in the study is represented in Tables 1  and 2.       According to their survey answers we found out that Majority of the sample included in this study had never visited a dentist before (Q1) neither the orthodontist (Q2) & his area of specialization (Q3). These people were told about their mal-alignment of teeth by other people of the society (Q4) & were not yet aware of the functioning of the orthodontist (Q6). These subjects were not aware of the side effects of improperly positioned teeth (Q8). They believed that this kind of treatment should be started at an early age (Q7) in order to improve their facial appearance (Q9), even though they were not aware about the cost of such treatment (Q10). They showed awareness that such treatment could take more than 2 years (Q11), but were not aware that few sound teeth had to be sacrificed for the same (Q12). The survey revealed that they had a knowledge about various habits causing malocclusion (Q13), metallic & teeth colored ceramic braces (Q14) but were not about adult orthodontic treatments (Q15). (Table 3-7) Discussion:-"Why people do not seek orthodontic treatment?" is the driving question among all staring orthodontist & a driving force for this study. The answer to this question would wary from, "Lack of Awareness, Metal display, Expensive treatment, Duration of treatment or Extraction of sound teeth". The exact satisfactory response to this question was evaluated through this study.
Globally, there has been an increase in awareness of Orthodontics as a dental specialty in children as well as adults [1][2]. The level of dental health knowledge, positive dental health attitude, and dental health behavior are interlinked and associated with the level of education and income as demonstrated by various studies [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Attitudes and perceptions towards dental appearance differ among populations and among individuals [9,10].
Self-awareness is a dynamic process, not a static phenomenon [11]. Although; imparting oral health education begins from the footstep of awareness, evaluation of its implementation is an important indicator of the success of the education imparted [12]. Age-related changes in malocclusion concerns ideally should be studied longitudinally because with the progress in age, the awareness to nature & complexity of malocclusion increases.
In a similar study by Siddegowda 13 , High school children showed a higher level of awareness about orthodontic treatment when compared to middle school children. Urban children had shown more positive attitude like visiting a dentist in a study done by Singh et al. in 2012 . [14] Considering the influence of age on awareness of orthodontics, it was found that it increased significantly. Similar findings were seen in a study conducted by Friedman et al., in 1976 . [14] The aim of orthodontic procedure is to improve dental occlusion, which results in better smile and good functioning in harmony with the face . [13] Overall, it has been seen as an increase in awareness of orthodontic treatments as a dental specialty among children as well as adults . [1] Conclusion:-Enhancing appearance and improving psychosocial status have been identified as important motivating factors behind the decision to initiate orthodontic treatment. This survey created awareness of orthodontic treatment among 504 various patients & children's. Awareness of malocclusion and the need to make corrections has increasingly become prevalent among our population. As growing public interest in oral health increased, the demand for orthodontic treatment also became more noticeable in dental practices.