ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT DEMAND AND NEED IN 3RD AND 4TH GRADE SCHOOLCHILDREN

There have been few reports worldwide addressing orthodontic need and demand in children and no recent reports in the United States. The pur pose of this study was to examine the orthodontic need and demand in t hird and fourth grade children (n = 3696). Data including age, sex, ra ce, orthodontic status, socioeconomic status, availability of speciali st treatment services, as well as thorough occlusal data, were collect ed. Orthodontic demand was significantly higher in girls (9.5%) than b oys (6.8%), whereas need had the inverse relationship (41.8%, 44.2%, r espectively). There were no meaningful differences in age among the de mand, need, and no need groups. Demand was greater in white than in bl ack children (11.8% versus 1.2%); however, need was observed to be les s in black (35.3%) than in white children (47.2%). Demand was greater in the urban schools (8.9%) than in the rural schools (6.3%), whereas need was found to be similar. There was more demand in the higher soci oeconomic groups (11.7%) than in the lower groups (1.8%), whereas need was similar in all the groups. The demand group had a significantly g reater number of orthodontists within a radius of up to 5 miles of the school than the need and no need groups. Logistic regression models t o examine factors that distinguish the groups show that when demand ve rsus need/no need groups are compared, those students with an increase d ''risk'' of previous treatment are more likely to have more orthodon tists nearby, to be in higher socioeconomic groups, and to be female s tudents.