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 < .001), PE (P < .001), FC (P < .001) and overall FIS score (P < .001), demonstrating an improvement in the subscale and overall QoL of families of adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of fixed orthodontic appliance therapy on the families of adolescents was highly beneficial.