title: [Indices of treatment needs in orthodontics: the applicability of the DAI (Dental Aesthetic Index)].
abstract: The objective assessment of esthetic impairment and relative psychosocial handicap for unacceptable dental aspect (useful for characterizing the need of treatment), could be satisfied by an index that measures each individual's occlusal trait and the psychological impact of the same. An index with these characteristics was suggested by Cons and Jenny, already since 1985. This is an index (DAI: Dental Aesthetic Index) designed specifically to measure dental esthetics, based on esthetic standards socially defined and focused through an extensive and finalized search. Therefore this index assesses the social acceptability of the dental appearance based on the public perception of dental esthetics. The authors, in this work, indicate as measuring the objective traits of occlusion and arriving to final score trough simple calculation. This score provides severity levels of esthetic, psychologic and functional impairment relative to dental aspect in examination.
authors.affiliation: Cattedra di Clinica Odontostomatologica, Università degli Studi, L'Aquila.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Monaco
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boccuni
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Marci
mesh_terms: D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009970:Orthodontics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012720:Severity of Illness Index