Nigerian Orthodontic Patients’ Satisfaction with Duration of Conventional Treatment, their Perception and Attitude towards Accelerated Orthodontics in a University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Accelerated orthodontics has been receiving increased interest in the global orthodontic community recently, but the knowledge and practice of it is still very limited among orthodontists and the orthodontic patients. Aim: To assess the satisfaction of some Nigerian orthodontic patients with duration of conventional orthodontic treatment, as well as their perception and attitude towards accelerated orthodontics. Materials and Methods: A clinic-based cross-sectional survey of patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between March 2023 and May, 2024. All the 117 patients consisting of 50(42.7%) males and 67(57.3%) females with the age range of 10 to 63 years and mean age of 24.79 + 11.60 (SD) filled and returned the self-administered questionnaire, giving a response rate of 100%. Statistical analysis of the data was done using SPSS IBM 25 and descriptive, chi-square, student’s t-test and ANOVA statistics were employed. The significance level was set at P < .05. Results: Over 64% of the patients expressed satisfaction with the duration of conventional orthodontic treatment without any significant gender differences (P >.05). They generally prefer the non-invasive procedures of accelerated orthodontics to the invasive techniques. Although the patients would want to use non-invasive accelerated orthodontics, cost remains a major limiting factor. Conclusion/Recommendation: High proportion of the patients is satisfied with the duration of conventional orthodontic treatment without gender bias, and some proportion of them would prefer non-invasive accelerated orthodontic procedures but cost is a limiting factor.