Impacto do uso do aparelho ortodôntico na qualidade de vida de adolescentes de 11 a 14 anos de idade

Abstract

The appliances used in orthodontics can cause discomfort, pain and functional limitations. As there are few data on the impact of these orthodontic appliances on the quality of the individuals life, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the use of orthodontic appliance on the quality of life of children. A cross-sectional study was carried out in the city of Brumadinho, MG. The random sample was of 579 children aged 11-14 years old, enrolled in public and private schools. The children were examined to check the wearing or not wearing orthodontic appliance. The tool used for evaluating the impact of wearing orthodontic appliance was the Brazilian short version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ11-14) consisted of 16 items. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney test (significance level: 5%). To a sample of the study, a higher impact was noticed in the oral symptoms (OS) domain (3.50 ±2.27) compared to the functional limitations (FL), emotional well-being (EWB) and social well-being (SWB) domains; and a lower impact in the SWB domain (1.68 ±2.21) compared to the OS, FL, EWB domains. The total score of the CPQ11-14 was higher for children who wearing orthodontic appliance than for those who not wearing orthodontic appliance (p = 0.002). Similar behavior was observed for the FL, EWB e SWB domains, with differences among groups (p = 0.005; 0.006; 0.003). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the score on the OS subscale (p = 0.124). Wearing an orthodontic appliance had a negative impact on the childrens quality of life.