Percepción estética de los pacientes de Clase III antes y después de la terapia de máscara facial

Résumé

Class III malocclusions are among the most difficult problems in orthodontics. The success of the treatment is conditioned by the initial situation and is limited by mandibular growth. The soft tissue facial profile has been considered by patients and orthodontists as a primary goal of therapy, especially in those with a concave profile. The treatment can bring an improvement in the psychological and social well-being of the patient. Objetive: to assess the differences in aesthetic perception of Class III patients before and after wearing a face mask between dentists and parents of orthodontically treated children. Material and methods: a cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to respond to the study hypothesis. A questionnaire of 18 images with the profile of 9 skeletal Class III patients before and after being treated with a face mask was physically distributed to the sample, under a paper format. It was anonymous, and each member of the sample had a limited time of 10 minutes to fi ll it out, and to rate each photo from 0 (being the least aesthetic) to 5 (being the most aesthetic). The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 200 participants (100 in the patient group, 50 in the orthodontic graduate student group, and 50 in the surgical graduate student group). Among all the participants, 54.5% were women and 45.5% were men. The age of the participants represented a mean of 32.8+-8.1 years. Statistical analysis: student's and Wilcoxon's parametric tests were used to check the significance of the means of the same sample of subjects. For the contrast between means of samples and subsamples of diff erent subjects (intergroup), the following tests were used: Student and Anova of 1 factor. Results: there are significant diff erences between both groups, being the posttreatment group more aesthetic. In both groups, the mean score is low. It is observed that patients score significantly higher than dentists. Age is not related to the score. Regarding the gender of the participants, it was found that men vary their way of qualifying more highly than women (P<0.05). The males in the group of surgical students considered the images to be generally more aesthetic than the females in the same group. Conclusions: the aesthetic perception of class III patients (profile view) is generally low, although it improves minimally after face mask therapy.