To assess the impact of previously provided orthodontic treatment on the normative need in a sample of young adult Peruvians.
Six hundred and thirty five freshmen, representative of all first year students registering in 2002 at a private university in Lima, were randomly screened to obtain 63 cases and 126 controls. A case was defined as having a definite orthodontic treatment need determined by the DAI and IOTN indices simultaneously. A control was defined as having no need of orthodontic treatment based on both indices. Students were also asked if they had previously undergone any orthodontic treatment. Binary logistic regression was used for the statistical analysis.
Sex, age and socioeconomic status of the students were not statistically associated with normative orthodontic treatment need (
The impact of previously provided orthodontic treatment on the current normative need of young adults was limited. Properly designed studies are required to assess the reasons for these findings.