Oral mucosal ulceration during orthodontic treatment: The perception of patients and knowledge and attitude of the orthodontic practitioners

BACKGROUND: As both orthodontist and patient should play a role hand in hand for the better outcomes of the treatment their knowledge and perceptions regarding problems are important. Hence, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the perception of patients and knowledge and attitude of the Orthodontist with regards to oral mucosal ulceration during the treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For this cross-sectional questionnaire study was two questionnaires were distributed. The first questionnaire was given to orthodontic practitioners (n = 103) to obtain demographic details, measure their knowledge, attitude and practices toward oral mucosal ulcers encountered during orthodontic treatment and the second questionnaire was given to orthodontic patients (n = 190) to record demographics, and experience and perceptions regarding mucosal ulcerations caused by orthodontic treatment and pain severity. Data analysis was done by using SPSS version 22. Cross tabulation was achieved using Chi-square tests and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Over half of the patient 63% had oral ulcers during orthodontic treatment. More than half of the orthodontic practitioners 55.3% in this study reported that orthodontic treatment is the cause of oral ulcerations. The majority of orthodontic practitioners 70% participating in this study educated their patients about oral ulcerations by using verbal means of education. CONCLUSION: Although patients rarely visit their orthodontic practitioner with the complaint of ulcers it may be due to the fact that they seek physcian or implement various home remedies rather than seek their orthodontic practitioner. Further studies are needed to elucidate the correlation between ulcers and orthodontic treatment clinically.