Quality of life of families of adolescents undergoing fixed orthodontic appliance therapy: Evaluation of a cohort of parents/guardians of treated and untreated individuals

Background Quality of life (QoL) measurements have been employed in medicine and dentistry to assess the effect of diseases and treatment on individuals’ lives. Aim To assess the effect of the initial 12 months of fixed orthodontic appliance therapy on the families of Brazilian adolescents. Design A cohort of 11‐ to 12‐year‐old adolescents and their parents/guardians participated. Treatment group (TG) consisted of 101 parents/guardians of adolescents who began fixed orthodontic appliance therapy. They completed four sets of the Family Impact Scale (FIS) at baseline, 1 month, 6 months and 12 months after the bonding of fixed appliances. Control group (CG) was composed of 175 parents/guardians of adolescents, who did not begin treatment, answering four sets of the FIS at the same intervals. The subscales of FIS were parental/family activity (PA), parental emotions (PE), family conflict (FC) and financial burden (FB). Statistical analysis was performed. Results The interaction of group (treatment) with time allowed one to observe significant changes in the PA (P