Determinants of Orthodontic Treatment Decisions in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aesthetic, social, and economic considerations are key determinants of orthodontic treatment decision-making worldwide. Patient awareness plays an important role in the selection of the treatment. However, limited evidence exists regarding how these determinants shape patient choices in Pakistan. Increasing knowledge about available treatment options may help to facilitate better decision making and widen acceptance of alternative orthodontic modalities. Therefore, this paper presents a descriptive cross-sectional study of 248 orthodontic patients attending a tertiary Islamic International Dental Hospital (IIDH), Islamabad, Pakistan from February to August 2024. A structured questionnaire is used to collect data on demographic characteristics, treatment motivations, awareness, and other influencing factors. Data is analyzed using a statistical software, SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics are computed along with the Chi-square tests to determine association among variables, and p < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The most dominant motivating factor is aesthetic concerns (i.e., 76.2%) followed by social influence (i.e., 66.9%), and cost considerations (i.e., 40.3%). In addition, knowledge of alternative orthodontic treatment is found to be low as 19.8%. Significant associations are found between age and treatment preference (i.e., p = 0.011), income and cost influence (i.e., p = 0.034), and awareness and treatment preference (i.e., p = 0.008). It is also deduced that the gender and aesthetic concerns are not associated with any significant values (i.e., p = 0.719) and social influence and treatment preference are also not significant (i.e., p = 0.198), respectively.