%0 Journal Article
%T Attitudes of Nigerian patients to the use of orthodontic appliances.
%A Chukwudi Ochi Onyeaso
%A Ifeoma Linda Utomi
%J Hellenic Orthodontic Review
%D 2006
%I 
%X AIM: To assess the attitudes of Nigerian patients currently undergoing orthodontic treatment towards their appliances.DESIGN: Prospective clinic-based survey.SETTING: Orthodontic patients currently undergoing treatment between January 2004 and June 2005 at two referral centres in Nigeria - the Orthodontic Unit of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan and the Department of Child Dental Health at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty-four subjects comprising 40 females (62.5%) and 24 males (37.5%) who accepted to participate in the study were recruited. Each subject had worn an appliance for at least 4 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The participants filled in the questionnaire containing questions on ¡®orthodontic appliance worry¡¯ and other items in assessing their attitudes to their appliances. The Standard Occupational Classification was used to group the subjects into social levels.RESULTS: Over 69% of the subjects agreed that they were proud to look at themselves in the mirror with their appliances on, 63.1% were glad to let their friends see their appliances while 44.6% were happy when people generally noticed their appliances. Although 81.5% of the sample claimed not being bothered about teasing from people while wearing their appliances, the cumulative orthodontic appliances worry score revealed that 80.3% of the sub-sample with complete responses on worry questions were in the ¡®moderate worrier¡¯ group while 17.9% and 1.8% belonged to ¡®low worrier¡¯ and ¡®high worrier¡¯ groups, respectively.CONCLUSION: Such concerns of the orthodontic patients in this study resulting in the majority of the subjects being in the ¡®moderate worrier¡¯ group need to be considered during pre-treatment counseling sessions for more effective orthodontic care.
%K Attitudes
%K Nigerian orthodontic patients
%K appliances.
%U http://www.grortho.gr/hor/2006v09i2/02%20onyeaso.pdf