Abstract

BACKGROUND This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression in a group of patients referred for orthodontic treatments which can be helpful in the better and more successful treatment planning. METHODS Beck's depression inventory was administered to 350 patients in the age group of 16 - 29 years who were referred to the Department of Orthodontics. Each patient was examined by the orthodontist for type of malocclusion classifications and finally the relation between the severity of the depression and the type of malocclusion was determined. SPSS software was used for analysing the data using the chi-square, one-way Anova, t-test and Tukey's test. The significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS Prevalence of depression among class I, II, and III patients was 22.4, 32.7 and 39.6, respectively. There was no significant relation between gender, marital status, educational status, and depression (p>0.05). However, there was a significant relation between types of malocclusion and depression (p<0.05). The relation between class I and class III malocclusions and depression was significantly different, with the highest depression prevalence in Class III patients (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS There is a relatively high prevalence of depression among orthodontic patients, especially among patients with Angle's class III malocclusion.