LAY ATTITUDES TO DENTAL APPEARANCE AND NEED FOR ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT

In provision of advice about aesthetic treatment need, visual stimuli as a tool in communication may have some advantages compared with verb al descriptions, in particular when children are addressed. The Aesthe tic Component (AC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need is an il lustrated scale for rating of dental attractiveness developed in the U K and based on lay adults' ratings of dental photographs. This scale h as also been recommended for use in patient education. The purpose of the present study was to establish a sociocultural standard of referen ce for Norway related to the AC, in order to examine the applicability of the scale as a tool in patient information. Samples of 137 childre n, 126 of their parents and 98 young adults were shown the 10 photogra phs comprising the AC. The subjects were asked to assess the photograp hs for dental attractiveness and orthodontic treatment need on a four- category rating scare. The findings indicated that, in general, photog raphs with an increasing scale point were rated as increasingly more u nattractive. The majority (80-100 per cent) of the parents and young a dults rated the five photographs on the unattractive end of the scale to be in need of treatment. The children were significantly less criti cal in their aesthetic judgements. Photographs representing borderline need, identified for these groups to be scare points 5 and 6, have a potential in guiding patients and parents in making informed decisions about aesthetic treatment need.