Assessment of orthodontic treatment outcomes: early treatment versus late treatment.

This investigation compares the treatment outcome of early treatment (in the mixed dentition) with that of late treatment (early permanent dentition) using objective evaluation criteria. Pretreatment and post-treatment records of all patients (n = 512) completed from 1998 to 2000 in the graduate orthodontics clinic at the Indiana University School of Dentistry (IUSD) were evaluated by the American Board of Orthodontics Objective Grading System (ABO OGS) and Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (CCA) method developed at IUSD. Two definitions of early treatment were used in this study: (1) all patients started in the mixed dentition with early-treatment objectives and (2) female individuals were <10 years and male individuals were <10.5 years of age when treatment began. Comparison of the final results between early- vs late-treatment groups showed that the early-treatment group had significantly longer treatment time and worse CCA scores than the late-treatment group, regardless of the definition of the early-treatment group or whether the early-debond (premature treatment termination) cases were included or not. There was no significant difference between early- and late-treatment groups regarding the ABO OGS score, which indicated that the CCA method is more sensitive in detecting compromised outcomes for patients with long treatment times. Prematurely terminated treatment was more prevalent in the early-treatment group than in the late-treatment group. In this large sample of consecutive patients (n = 512), the disadvantages of early treatment was prolonged treatment time, worse CCA score, and a higher incidence of premature termination of treatment, which was attributed to patient/parent "burn-out."