Evaluation of awareness, knowledge, and approval of orthodontic treatment among dental patients in Northwestern Nigeria: A cross-sectional study

Background: Malocclusion is a common presenting problem in the dental setting. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness, knowledge, and approval of orthodontic treatment among patients in Northwestern Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Dental and Maxillofacial Surgery of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, over 10 months using a self-administered questionnaire. After obtaining ethical approval from the institution's research and ethics committee, 510 respondents filled out and returned the questionnaires. The questionnaire was designed to test for awareness, source of awareness, knowledge, willingness to approve, and reason for not being willing to approve orthodontic treatment. The data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software version 25. Results: A total of 510 appropriately filled and returned the questionnaires among which there were 346 (67.8%) male and 164 (32.2%) female respondents. The mean ± standard deviation age of the respondent was 24.54 ± 9.53 in the range of 17–68 years. Only 184 (n) respondents were aware of orthodontic treatment, and dentist 81 (44.0%) was the main source of information. Those respondents who claimed to know about orthodontic treatment scored a total of 38.4% in the knowledge assessment. A total of 122 (66.3%) of the respondents were willing to approve orthodontic treatment. Conclusion: This study revealed below average level of awareness and knowledge of patients about orthodontic treatment. Awareness and knowledge about orthodontic treatment are capable of sensitizing the patients to accept and cooperate better, hence the higher success of the treatment.