Subjective orthodontic treatment need and perceived dental appearance among young Finnish adults with and without previous orthodontic treatment.

Subjective orthodontic treatment need and perceived oral condition were studied in a sample of 226 young adult Finns with and without previous orthodontic treatment. The subjects, applicants to enter the University of Helsinki, were interviewed immediately after their entrance examination. Altogether 38.5 per cent of the subjects had received some form of orthodontic treatment. A higher percentage of subjects who had been orthodontically treated reported a current subjective need for treatment than did the untreated ones but this only reached statistical significance in men (P < 0.05). Appearance was the reason for the treatment need among 64.7 per cent of treated and among 80.0 per cent of untreated subjects. The differences in proportions were non-significant. Men were more often satisfied with their dentition than women. Most, 56.3 per cent of treated and 66.2 per cent of untreated subjects, considered their anterior teeth regularly positioned. The most prevalent type of malocclusion noted in the anterior segments was crowding (27.0 per cent), followed by malpositioned (18.6 per cent) and protruding (9.3 per cent) teeth. It is likely that those who had received orthodontic treatment, had initially had more, and more severe malocclusions than those who were untreated. Thus, it may be that orthodontic treatment had raised the perceptions of the dentition of the treated individuals to the same level as the untreated individuals.