Impact of wearing fixed orthodontic appliances on oral health-related quality of life among Brazilian children

摘要

Objective: To assess the impact of wearing a fixed orthodontic appliance on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among Brazilian children. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: The Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics at Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Participants: Sample of 579 children aged 11-14 years. The children were divided into two groups: wearing (n=160) and not wearing (n=419) a fixed orthodontic appliance. Methods: A clinical examination was performed by a single examiner to determine whether or not a fixed orthodontic appliance was worn, the presence of a malocclusion using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) and cavitated carious lesions. The impact of wearing a fixed orthodontic appliance on OHRQoL was measured using the short form of the Brazilian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ 11-14). Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney test and univariate/multiple logistic regression. Results: The total CPQ 11-14 score revealed a more frequent impact among children who wore a fixed orthodontic appliance than those who did not (P=0.002). Similar findings were observed for the FL (P=0.005), EWB (P=0.006) and SWB (P=0.003) subscales. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the score on the OS subscale (P=0.124). While females were 1.76 times more likely to have a worse OHRQoL than males, the use of a fixed orthodontic appliance was also significantly associated with a greater chance (OR=1.60; CI=1.11-2.33) of impacting OHRQoL when both variables were inserted together in the regression model. Conclusion: Children wearing a fixed orthodontic appliance had significantly worse OHRQoL compared with a control group with no malocclusion and not wearing a fixed appliance.