Impacto do tratamento ortodôntico inicial com aparelho fixo na qualidade de vida de adolescentes utilizando um instrumento condição específica

Abstract

Impact of onset orthodontic treatment with the fixed appliance on the quality of life of adolescents using the specific condition questionnaire The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances on the oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) of male and female adolescents, using a specific condition questionnaire. The sample of this study involved 46 adolescents between 10 and 18 years old, in the sixth month of orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Adolescents OHRQoL during orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances was assessed by means of the Brazilian version of condition-specific questionnaire Impact of Fixed Appliances Measure (B-IFAM). This questionnaire is composed of 43 questions distributed across nine subscales: aesthetics (5 questions), functional limitation (3 questions), dietary impact (6 questions), oral hygiene impact (3 questions), maintenance impact (2 questions), physical impact (9 questions), social impact (5 questions), time constraints (5 questions), and travel/cost/inconvenience implications (5 questions). Each question has five response options according to a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, in which: 1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= neither agree nor disagree, 4= agree and 5= strongly agree. A higher score denotes a greater negative impact on adolescents quality of life. Analysis of sociodemographic data involved the chi-square test and the Mann-Whitney test. The Student t test was carried out for the analysis of the differences between male and female individuals regarding B-IFAM overall score and domains scores. The analysis of covariance was carried to evaluate the differences between male and female adolescents regarding the B-IFAM overal score, controlling for confounding variables. Out of the 46 adolescents, who participated in this study, 25 were female and 21 male. Adolescents mean age was 13.1 years. The results showed that female adolescents presented a higher negative impact on their quality of life during the orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances, when compared with male adolescents (p<0.001). The main negative impacts regarded the domains of oral hygiene (p=0.002), physical impact (p<0.001) and social impact (p<0.001). During orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances, female individuals showed a higher negative impact on their OHRQoL than male individuals.