Emergency appointments in orthodontics

Abstract

Introduction: Patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment are usually recalled electively for the adjustments of the appliances, but sometimes they appear suddenly for emergency visit which must be addressed immediately. The primary objective of this study was to assess the nature and frequency of emergency visits made by patients under labial fixed orthodontic therapy. The secondary objective was to compare these visits between genders and age groups. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at orthodontic clinic, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. All the patients undergoing fixed labial orthodontic treatment were included and followed up for a period of 6 months. The reason for emergency appointment was recorded along with the demographic and clinical details. Chi-square test was used to find out the possible association between gender and age group with emergency appointment. Results: Of 327 patients undergoing active fixed orthodontic therapy, 199 were female and 128 were male. A total of 176 emergency appointments were encountered during the study period of 6 months. The most common reason was the loosening of brackets or bondable buccal tubes (118) followed by loosening of bands (45). Other reasons were trauma to the buccal mucosa by the overextended wire (5), detachment of buccal tubes from the band (5), tearing of bands (3), breakage of acrylic plate (2), loosening of ligature tie (1), and dislodgement of elastomeric chain (1). Emergency appointments were not found to have statistically significant association with age group (χ2 = 0.073, P = 0.787) or the gender (χ2 = 3.196, P = 0.074). Conclusions: Loosening of the brackets or bondable buccal tubes was the most common cause for emergency visit. No significant association was found between the gender and age group with such visits.