The objective and quantitative analysis of malocclusion: Part 2. Influence of malocclusion compenents to treatment difficulty

Joo, Bo Hoon; Lee, Ki Soo

Abstract

As one of the variations in growth and development of the craniofacial complex, malocclusion shows lack of concordance in the recognition and severity of malocclusion for dentists as well as the acceptance and need of orthodontic treatment for the patient. The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the relationships between objective malocclusion severity and subjective treatment difficulty, 2) to evaluate the effect of malocclusion components to the subjective perceived difficulty of treatment, 3) to establish the weighted values of malocclusion components to reflect the treatment difficulty. 100 pairs of dental casts with the general characteristics of malocclusion, were selected from the orthodontic departments of Kyunghee University and Samsung Medical Center. The severity of malocclusion was evaluated by the author with the PAR index. The perceived treatment difficulty and the estimated treatment duration on these dental models were evaluated by 8 experienced orthodontists. The relationships between the objective malocclusion severity and the subjective treatment difficulty were statistically evaluated, and the weighted values of malocclusion components to reflect treatment difficulty were statistically formulated. There were significant relationships between objective malocclusion severity and subjective treatment difficulty. The malocclusion components which significantly affected the treatment difficulty and their weighted values in parentheses were as follows; upper anterior alignment (1), overbite (2), buccal occlusion (3), midline (4), and overjet (5). This study provides the fundamental principle to evaluate the objective malocclusion severity which is reflected by the subjective treatment difficulty of Korean orthodontists.