Examination of levels of perceptions of differences between orthodontists and dentists among patients presenting for a first examination at Ondokuz Mayıs University Dentistry Faculty

Aim: This study examines the levels of perceptions of differences between orthodontists and dentists among patients presenting to the Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Dentistry's Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology. Material and Methods: The data were collected via face-to-face interviews conducted by a single person with 400 participants who presented to the Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Dentistry's Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology for examinations between March 2022 and November 2022. The participants were asked about the differences between orthodontists and dentists. Demographic data such as age, sex, and educational status were collected and the influence of those variables on doctor selection was examined. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23. Fitness to normal distribution Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests; Pearson's chi-square test and Yates correction for comparison of categorical data by groups; multiple comparisons Bonferroni corrected Z test; data on mean age Mann Whitney U test; The independent variables were analyzed with binary logistic regression analysis. Analysis results are presented as mean ± standard deviation and median (min.-max.) for quantitative data, and as frequency (percent) for categorical data. Significance level was taken as p<0.050. Results: The vast majority (>85%) of the respondents thought that a dentist providing orthodontic treatment should also be an orthodontist.Furthermore, 63.3% of those who did not have previous orthodontic treatment experience and 74.3% of those with previous orthodontic treatment thought that an orthodontist was the most qualified person for treatment. The rate of those who thought that the training period of the orthodontist was longer and those who said they did not know about the training period were close to each other. The most influential factor in the selection of orthodontic treatment was whether the operator was an orthodontist, followed by the comments of previous patients. Those who chose a general dentist to do their orthodontic treatment had a rate of %7. Those who chose the orthodontist in their treatment were generally women, people with a good income and high level of education. Those with a previous orthodontic treatment history were found to be more conscious than those without. Conclusion: In general, even though the participants preferred orthodontists for their orthodontic treatment, it was revealed that they did not know the exact differences between orthodontists and dentists. Current findings show that citizens need to be better educated on this issue. The null hypothesis was rejected. Key words: Awareness, dentist, orthodontic treatment, orthodontist.