Effectiveness of the American Board of Orthodontics Discrepancy Index in predicting Treatment Time.

AIM: This study was aimed to explore the effect of pretreatment severity of malocclusion on the duration of the treatment using The American Board of Orthodontics discrepancy index (ABO-DI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This clinical retrospective study consisted of orthodontics records of 37 patients who were treated with comprehensive fixed orthodontic appliance from 2011 to 2013. The sample of the study was collected so as to exclude, to the maximum possible, the patient cooperation variability by reviewing all patient chart entries. The DI measurements were used to gather the information of the pretreatment and relate it to the time duration of the treatment. Statistical analyses were performed using the chi-square test and Pearson correlation coefficient.

RESULTS: The average treatment time was 24.5 months. The DI scores mean for class I and II was 14.30 and 20.15 respectively. Age and sex did not significantly influence the treatment duration (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the ABO-DI could be a useful tool to predict orthodontic treatment time.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The ABO-DI can significantly aid in orthodontic treatment time planning.