Early Orthodontic Treatment Need and Experience Among Adolescents in Kuwait

Objective: Our purpose was to determine residual need for early orthodontic treatment and parameters associated with orthodontic treatment experience in 13-14-year-old school children in Kuwait. Subjects and Methods: A total of 788 boys and 795 girls, representing about 6.7% of the target population, were selected according to cluster sampling methods defining students in the government schools of each administrative area as six different strata, and the students in private schools as the seventh stratum. Information on nationality, family income, and orthodontic treatment experience was collected through subject and family interview. Occlusal parameters were scored in a well lit classroom, or from initial study models of subjects with orthodontic treatment experience. Results: Only 6.7% of the 225 subjects with early treatment need, defined as overjet°Ý6.5mm, functional posterior crossbite, and functional anterior crossbite on one or more teeth, had treatment experience. Residual need for early treatment was therefore present in 13.4% of the subjects. Only 26.8% of the subjects with treatment experience met our criteria for early treatment need. The odds of treatment experience were higher in subjects attending private schools (p<0.05), in subjects from families with income >KD 2,000 (p<0.01), and in subjects meeting our criteria for early treatment need (p<0.01). Conclusions: About 15% of each birth cohort of Kuwaiti school children needs early orthodontic treatment. Less than 10% of those with need have treatment experience at 13 to 14 years of age, and about 75% of those with treatment experience at that age do not need early treatment. Predictors for treatment experience at 13 to 14 years of age are private school attendance, high family income, and need for early treatment.