Abstract
Introduction: Elastic modules are an integral part of fixed appliances. The availability of different colours is important to patients and their compliance during treatment. Knowledge about the most popular colours is important to orthodontists when ordering their materials.
Aim: This study aimed to determine the elastic ligature colour preferences of patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment and the influences of age and gender on these preferences.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on a total of 319 patients (88 males and 231 females) aged 1836 years of age participated in this study. The patients' elastic ligature colour preferences were recoded using a colour guide and a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions about the patients' preferences regarding coloured or transparent ligatures, light or dark shades, and changing the ligatures for specific occasions. The data were analysed using SPSS version 25. The descriptive statistics were calculated, and a Pearson's chi-squared analysis was performed to determine the influence of age and gender effects on colour preferences (p-value <0.05).
Results: Most of the participants were excited about changing their elastic ligatures colours (44.5%), and they liked to change the colours at each visit (45.5%). Most participants did not like having multicoloured elastic ligatures in their mouths (77.4%) or changing the elastic colours before certain occasions (49.8%). There was no statistically significant difference in the elastic ligature colour preferences between the genders (p-value=0.0552), but there were statistically significant differences among the age groups (p-value <0.001).
Conclusion: Most of the patients undergoing orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances preferred less noticeable elastic ligature colours. A significant difference was found between age groups: younger patients preferred coloured elastics, while older patients preferred less noticeable and transparent elastics. No difference was found between the colour preferences among both the gender.