Title Advantages of orthodontic treatment /
Translation of Title Advantages of Orthodontic Treatment.
Authors Schmidt, Frithjof Maximilian
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Pages 89
Keywords [eng] Orthodontic treatment, malocclusion, OHRQOL, periodontitis, caries, mastication, speech, psychosocial well-being
Abstract [eng] Orthodontic treatment is mainly financed privately which alters the dynamics of treatment justification. The orthodontic community may directly reach out to each potential patient as each of them may decide freely if they want to be orthodontically treated. The patients are usually not medically educated and therefore, orthodontists may misleadingly claim theories and vague suggestions of treatment advantages as some ultimate truths. This literature review aims to gather, summarize, and criticize relevant and possibly misleading claims of orthodontic treatment advantages – and comes to several conclusions of different degrees of confidence. Rather confidently, it may be concluded that orthodontic treatment may be advantageous to exponentiate the improvement of localized impaction-related and occlusal- traumatic periodontitis and to normalize several performative aspects of the masticatory system. It may also normalize the sociocultural reception and improve psychosocial well-being. About the oral health-related quality of life, it may be preliminarily concluded that it may indeed be improved by orthodontic treatment, but the concept itself still is so vague that this conclusion should be taken as nothing more than a call for further research. With lesser confidence, it may preliminarily be concluded that orthodontic treatment may be advantageous to reduce caries risk in certain types of malocclusion. It may also be advantageous to treat and support certain types of malocclusions to treat certain types of temporomandibular disorders. Due to the lack of studies, it remains unclear if the inclusion of orthodontics in the multidisciplinary treatment of speech disorders is always advantageous.
Dissertation Institution Vilniaus universitetas.
Type Master thesis
Language English
Publication date 2023