History

The study's objectives were to compare undergraduate dental and non-dental students' knowledge of orthodontic therapy.

Material and methods: A survey using a cross-sectional design was carried out with 340 undergraduate students, both dental and non-dental. There were 169 non-dental students and 171 dental students in the sample. There were eight orthodontics-related knowledge questions in the questionnaire. After providing informed consent for their voluntary involvement in the study, each participant was given ten minutes to complete the questionnaire. The Chi square statistic was used to the acquired data to determine the difference between the two groups.

Results: There was a substantial difference (p=0.001) in the understanding of orthodontic treatment between dental and non-dental students on several different items. Although most students in both groups agreed that a person's physical appearance is influenced by their tooth arrangement, dental students' awareness (94.7%) was higher than that of non-dental students' (61.5%). While a greater percentage of dental students (49.7%) were willing to have orthodontic treatment if recommended by a dentist or their parents, about 34.3% of non-dental students consented to do so.

In conclusion, compared to non-dental students, most dental students were aware of orthodontic treatments and their modalities. This justifies the necessity to inform the non dental students about the advantages of orthodontic treatment.