Impacto social de la maloclusión en la calidad de vida en pacientes a los 6 meses del comienzo del tratamiento

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out the social impact of malocclusions on the quality of life of adult orthodontic patients using validated OHIP-14 and PIDAQ questionnaires. Materials and methods: 150 patients of the UAX university master's degree in orthodontics between 2018 and 2021 at the start of treatment and at six months with the OHIP14 and PIDAQ questionnaires. To evaluate the association between the variables we used Spearman's correlation and performed the analysis with SPSS version 25. Results: we found a significant difference (p<.05) in terms of physical pain with which we can deduce that during treatment it decreased. Regarding self-confidence, we found a very significant difference (p<.001) thus finding evidence to say that after starting treatment dental self-confidence improved. We found a significant difference (p<.01) in terms of social impact, although the accompanying effect size is considered moderate-mild (3.2%). This statistical evidence allows us to conclude that there is a small difference in social impact before starting treatment and once treatment has begun, with the mean being higher during treatment. On the other hand, we did not find significant differences in the comparison of the pretreatment studies and during treatment in terms of psychological impact, esthetic concern, functional limitation, psychological discomfort, psychological disability or social disability. Conclusions: dental self-confidence improved significantly during the first months of treatment.