The aims of the study were to investigate patient satisfaction and perceived psychosocial benefit from orthodontic treatment and to relate them to factors ajfecting treatment duration and treatment standards. A total of 130 patients (mean age I5 years) who had just completed full fixed appliance therapy (removable appliance) filled questionnaires. There was high proportion of satisfaction with dentofacial appearance (98.5 %), alignment of teeth (100 %), improved mastication (99.2%) and cleaning of teeth (98.5%). About 89.2% would recommend orthodontic treatment to their friends. All surveyed were satisfied with the services provided by the orthodontic staff and kw patients were dissatisfied with the length of each appointment (3.] %), number of appointments (l.5%) and total treatment time (5.4%). The main dissatisfaction appeared to be the long waiting time to be treated during their appointments (10%}. The mean duration of treatment to complete two-arch fixed appliance was I 7.6 months (S.D. 6.8 months) and 89.2% of cases were completed within 24 months. Treatment duration was also associated with pre-treatment ovemet (r=0.23 5), ovetjet d%rence_h·om pre-treatment to post-treatment 0·=0.204} and number of extractions (r=0.305}. Multmle linear regression anahtsis of duration of treatment with these factors accounted for about 7.8% ofthe variability.
Study site: Dental clinic, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia