Assessment of weight loss in the first three months of fixed orthodontic treatment

Background: To asses weight changes in patients in the first three months of fixed orthodontic treatment. Materials and Methods: 53 patients (12 males, 41 females) in test group who needed fixed orthodontic treatment were selected. 50 subjects (14 males and 36 females) with similar conditions were selected as control. The mean age was for treatment group was 17.44±0.75 and was 17.67±0.85 for control group. Weight values of patients recorded immediately before bonding of brackets at beginning of treatment, 1 week after bonding and in orderly 1, 2 and 3 months after bonding. The same values were recorded also for the control group. Results: According to the results of Repeated Variance Analysis: time dependent changes were statistically significant (p:0.015) but, Time-Group interaction results were not statistically significant (p: 0.051). There was a statistically significant difference between the weight values according to the time intervals between the baseline values and 1.week and 1.month values; while there was not a statistically significant difference between the other time intervals. There was a statistically significant decrease in the mean weight values of treatment group according to the mean baseline values. Conclusion: Remarkable weight loss was observed in all patients in the first month of the treatment. Patients started to recover weight loss after second month of treatment