Methods: 425 children (238boy, 187girl), aged 8-14 year old, living in two different regions of Turkey included in this study. The children were subgrouped according to gender, age and rural/urban place of residence. The Aesthetic Component (AC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) was used as an assessment measure of the need for orthodontic treatment. The perception of aesthetics was evaluated by asking each child to identify which photograph on the AC scale most liked. The collected data included socio-demographic data, dental clinical examination and AC scores. The chi-square tests were used to determine the association between the AC scores and gender, age and place of residence.
Results: The perceptions of dental aesthetics of UR children were very similar to those of the RR group. The orthodontic treatment needs for UR and RR children were 34.3% and 7.5% respectively (p=0,0001, ÷²:45,83). In RR, there was a significant difference between the results of AC either orthodontic treatment need (p=0.025; ÷²:9.38) and age groups(p=0.02; ÷²:15.04). In UR there was a significant difference between results of AC and gender (p=0.023; ÷²:9.53).
Conclusion: The present study has shown that perceptions of orthodontic treatment need are multifactorial and influenced by perceptions of aesthetics too. The AC would help to identify patients interested in treatment who would potentially be co-operative.