Proportion Of Orthodontic Patients Seeking Adult Orthodontic Treatment

The aim of the study was to assess the proportion of adults in a sample population of orthodontic patients seeking treatment. The study was conducted in a university hospital. Records of patients who underwent orthodontic treatment from June 2019 to February 2020, were examined and included in the study. A total of 41190 patient records were screened out of which 300 subjects were included in the study by simple random sampling. Patient records with chief complaints related to orthodontics only were chosen. Adults were defined as those who are aged 19 years and above. Data on age, gender, and chief orthodontic complaints were recorded. The recorded data was later methodically tabulated in a MS Excel worksheet. Tabulated data was later exported to SPSS software (SPSS version 21.0, SPSS, Chicago II, USA) for statistical analysis. The data was analysed using a chi- square test to check for association between gender and age groups. The chi square value was 0.234 and the p value was 0.629 (p value< 0.05 to be statistically significant). Hence there was no association between gender and adult orthodontic treatment. It was observed that 51.3% of orthodontic patients were in the age group of 19 - 40 years and 43.33% were in the age group of 18 and below. It was also observed that among adults 55% were females and 45% were males. From the results of the study it can be concluded that in a university hospital based setting, adults seeking orthodontic treatment are proportionately greater than adolescents and children and among adult patients both males and females were equally likely to seek orthodontic treatment .