Evaluation of the Perception of Orthodontic Treatment among General Dentists in Konkan Belt of Maharashtra: A Questionnaire Survey

A questionnaire based survey was conducted to evaluate the perception of treatment, knowledge, attitude and awareness in the field of Orthodontics amongst general dentists practicing Orthodontics in the Konkan belt of Maharashtra. We selected the konkan belt as the number of consulting orthodontists visiting the clinics of general practitioners in the konkan belt were less. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions related to varied areas in Orthodontics. It was distributed to one hundred and fifty general dentists and non-orthodontic specialists. After analysing the data based on the questionnaire, we observed that the knowledge level among the study participants was moderately satisfying. Yet the need for more education of the dentists in certain areas of Orthodontics was deemed necessary. Knowledge regarding the most appropriate time to start with orthodontic treatment and whether orthodontic treatment treatment always requires extraction protocol was observed to be inadequate. Improving the awareness amongst the practitioners in this area was concluded to be necessary to avoid complications and malpractice later in the future.