Vol. 6, Issue 3, Part H (2020)
Assessment of impact of orthodontic pain on quality of life of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment
Author(s):
Neha Chandel, Aprajita Dogra, Tarush Thakur and Prabhat Mandhotra
Abstract:
Background: Fixed orthodontic appliance therapy is a regular orthodontic treatment to correct variations from an arbitrary norm (align the teeth or correct other irregularities), which may cause functional restrictions, discomfort and pain, but traditional orthodontic studies have only included clinician-based outcome measures. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing impact of orthodontic pain on quality of life of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment.
Materials & methods: A total of 50 patients between the age group of 14 to 18 years were included in the present study. Pain was assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS) on a scale of zero to 10. A self-framed questionnaire was given to all the patients for assessing the impact of orthodontic pain on quality of life. The questions are rated using the five‑level Likert scale (always [4], often [3], sometimes [2], rarely [1], and never [0]). All the results were analysed by SPSS software.
Results: After one day of starting of fixed orthodontic treatment, no pain was seen in 3 patients, moderate pain was seen in 13 patients, while severe pain was seen in 25 patients. After one month, severe pain was seen only in one patient. With passage of time, there was significantly reduction in the mean pain score. Out of 50 patients, 86 percent of the patients sometimes had problems in pronouncing words. 76 percent of the patients sometime had painful aching in the mouth. 80 percent of the patients sometimes felt embarrassed. 86 percent of the patients sometimes had difficulty in doing usual jobs.
Conclusion: From the above results, the authors concluded that pain is the major reasons for patients’ non-cooperation and is a significant cause for missing appointments, which alters the quality of treatment.
Pages: 520-522 | 958 Views 215 Downloads
How to cite this article:
Neha Chandel, Aprajita Dogra, Tarush Thakur and Prabhat Mandhotra. Assessment of impact of orthodontic pain on quality of life of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. Int. J. Appl. Dent. Sci. 2020;6(3):520-522.