Aesthetic and Orthodontic Treatment Desires and Their Psychosocial Impact in Dental Students: A Questionnaire Study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the desire for aesthetic and orthodontic treatments and their relationships with psychosocial impacts and other factors among dental students.

Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study included 155 students from the College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. There were 65.2% of females and 34.8% of males with mean age of 21.33±1.52 years in the study. The participants completed demographic information, questions related to desire for aesthetic dental treatment including orthodontic treatment, and a validated Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics (PIDAQ) questionnaire. The PIDAQ questionnaire was used to evaluate the psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics and includes four subscales such as dental self-confidence, social impact, psychological impact, and aesthetic concern.

Results: Most participants (72%) desired aesthetic dental treatment. Teeth whitening (49%) was the most desired dental treatment, followed by orthodontic treatment (38.7%) and ceramic veneers (18.1%). The desire for aesthetic dental treatment was significantly associated with clinical years (P=0.042), knowledge of available esthetic treatment options (P=0.023), and attendance for routine dental care (P=0.028). The comparison of the PIDAQ scale scores showed that the participants with a desire for aesthetic treatment reported significantly lower dental self-confidence (P=0.018), and significantly greater social impact (P=0.049) and esthetic concern (P=0.006) than those without a desire for aesthetic treatment. Similarly, the participants desiring for orthodontic treatment showed significantly lower dental self-confidence (P<0.001) and significantly greater social impact (P=0.047), psychological impact (P=0.010), and aesthetic concern (P=0.019) than those who did not desire.

Conclusion: The study showed that most participants desired aesthetic dental treatment, and teeth whitening and orthodontic treatment being the most sought-after procedures. Knowledge of treatment options, routine dental care visits, and clinical years were associated with increased desire for aesthetic dental treatment. The desire for aesthetic and orthodontic treatments was significantly related to low dental self-confidence and higher social impact and aesthetic concern.