Pediatric patients' orthodontic treatment need, quality of life, and smiling patterns -- an analysis of patient, parent, and provider responses.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study is to explore the relationship between pediatric patients' orthodontic treatment need, the patients' assessments of their smile-related quality of life (QoL), their parents' proxy assessment of their child's QoL and own assessments of their child's smile, and the patients' objectively assessed smiling patterns.

METHODS

Survey data were collected from 102 patients (53 boys/49 girls; age range: 9-13 years) and their parents. Orthodontic treatment need was assessed with the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON). Smiling patterns were determined by videotaping patients' smiles while they watched a cartoon. Thirty predetermined sections of these tapes were then assessed by two independent raters to measure the patients' smiling patterns.

RESULTS

The aesthetic component and total ICON scores correlated with the patients' smile-related QoL (r = 0.25; P = 0.014/r = 0.23; P = 0.024), parental proxy assessments of the child's smile-related QoL (r = 0.29; P= 0.004/r = 0.26; P= 0.009), the parents' own assessments of their child's smile (r= 0.32; P= 0.002/ r = 0.29; P = 0.005), and the number of negative adjectives chosen by the parents to describe their child's smile (r= 0.32; P = 0.002/r = 0.30; P = 0.004). Although the smiling patterns were correlated with the patients' smile-related QoL responses (height of smile: r = 0.29; P = 0.005/number of teeth shown: r = 0.30; P = 0.004), the ICON scores were not correlated with the patients' smiling patterns.

CONCLUSIONS

Objectively assessed orthodontic treatment need correlates with the patients' and parents' assessments of the child's smile-related QoL scores. However, while objective smiling patterns are related with the patients' smile-related QoL, they are not correlated with the patients' orthodontic treatment need.