Subjective need and orthodontic treatment experience in a Middle East country providing free orthodontic services: a questionnaire survey

The aims of this study were to explore orthodontic treatment experience, subjective need for treatment, and perceptions of teeth and dental appearance in relation to background factors such as funding system, area of living, age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The subjects were 1076 randomly selected second-year high school students from a rural (Jahra) and an urban (Capital) area of Kuwait, with a mean age of 15.1 years. Kuwaiti citizens constituted 79% of the sample, and the rest were of other Arab origins. The data were collected using a questionnaire. Orthodontic treatment rate was significantly higher for Kuwaitis (10%) than for non-Kuwaitis (2%). Among Kuwaiti subjects, urban area of living and female gender increased the odds of receiving orthodontic treatment. Subjective treatment need was 36%, with no difference between Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti subjects, but Kuwaitis in the rural area expressed subjective treatment need less often than those in the urban area. The results suggest that access to free-of-cost orthodontic treatment was likely to affect treatment rate, whereas it did not seem to influence the self-perceived need for treatment. Gender and area of living may be significant for the distribution of free-of-cost orthodontic treatment.