Currently it represents a significant challenge in orthodontics knowing the influence that treatments have on the quality of life and self-esteem of the patients. Any clinical treatment in orthodontics must have as its purpose to achieve relevant functional and aesthetic benefits for the patient, in addition to possible impacts on the quality of life. It is important to mention that orthodontic treatments have increased due to the frequency in the incidence and prevalence of malocclusions, which currently represents a public health problem. The impact of these malocclusions in the daily life of the patient represents limitations that modify the facial appearance and that may have an influence on the self-esteem of the patient.
Facial appearance plays an important role in the perception of visual appeal and within the social fi eld, influences the integration of the person into the environment in which he or she develops. Without doubt, these aspects are related to the increase in orthodontic treatments and aesthetic aspects that have been on the rise thanks to scientific and technological developments, various treatment techniques, equipment to perform diagnosis, biomaterials and brackets that allow you to perform personalized treatments for patients, with the possibility of decreasing treatment time.
Orthodontic treatments for aesthetic reasons occupy a place of great importance in current dentistry, where adolescents and adults yearn or wish to have a smile aesthetically accepted by them or by their family and social circle, and as a result, the patients change in a positive way their well-being.
There are several causes for which the search of orthodontic treatments has increased; such as multidisciplinary clinical work with other specialties, the development of new dental materials, as well as the range of costs due to supply and demand.
The increase in the frequency of orthodontic treatments, is due to the search by part of the family of treatments that require an early start, in order to avoid the progression of any malocclusion or dental pathology, as well as to avoid possible complications in addition to achieve better aesthetics at the end of the treatment.
When the general dentist diagnoses any kind of malposition, he or she refers these patients to a Specialist in Orthodontics to solve this kind of problems and achieve favorable function and aesthetics. Communication is very important as well as the dentist-patient relationship. This relationship is strengthened with other clinical areas such as psychology, which provides the power to generate trust, listen to what the patient wants and choose together with the orthodontist the ideal treatment considering its scope and limitations.
An important factor that influences treatment and that may have a psychological impact, is patient motivation as well as the perception of the facial appearance that have influence in self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to the perception that the individual has of himself or herself and of the way in which he or she coexists with the environment. On the other hand self-image refers to the perception of the appearance of the individual; both the self-esteem and self-image have an impact on the quality of life. The quality of life is a multidimensional concept that includes subjectively the physical, psychological, emotional, mental, social and spiritual well-being of the person and is perceived by the individual experience of the subject that can increase or decrease the person¿s self-esteem and/or transmit confidence to the people around.
It is important to clinically evaluate the different types of orthodontic treatments, however it is important to assess the impact that these treatments have on the quality of life of patients and analyze how the acceptance and impact of the final result will be. Perception of the appearance, mainly of the face, affects health, social behavior and the happiness of the subject; it is important to bear in mind that scientific and technological progress in communal oral health promotes a better understanding of diseases not only in isolation but from a comprehensive oral health point of view, studying its determinants in a multidisciplinary manner.
The identification of patients who benefit most from orthodontics, through the use of indicators of quality of life in conjunction with normative indicators for the diagnosis of malocclusions may favor the development of more effective strategies for allocation of resources for community health.
The smile has become a key element that pleases visual perception and becomes essential to restore or perform repairs on the shape, positioning, and the aesthetic and functional balance of the teeth by means of orthodontic treatment.