• P-ISSN 2277-3525 E-ISSN 2582-7901

Journal of Multidisciplinary
Dental Research

Article

Journal of Multidisciplinary Dental Research

DOI: 10.38138/JMDR/v11i1.sds

Volume: 11, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-4

Original Article

Why are the Developing Malocclusion Not Referred Timely? Absence of a Guideline? A Novel Index for the Dental Frontliners

Saraswathy Devi Sinniah1,∗

1Head of Centre of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontic Studies, Faculty of Dentistry Universiti Teknologi MARA, Jalan Hospital, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]

Received Date:25 June 2024, Accepted Date:25 October 2025, Published Date:23 July 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Orthodontic treatment has always been highly quested for various apposite reasons, which includes, function and aesthetics. The orthodontic treatment need will be screened by the dental frontliners, prior to booking into the orthodontic waiting list. The turnover of the waiting list may take as short as 3 to 6 months to as long as a few years, before orthodontic treatment commences. Although, there are indices available to grade the presenting malocclusion, the absence of a guideline to grade the severity of a developing malocclusion and the urgency for treatment, can overwhelm the orthodontic waiting list and eventually overshoot the ideal period of interception. The accuracy of the referral is crucial to ensure that the subsequent step taken is beneficial and timely. To address the difficulty in recognising and triaging developing malocclusion, a novel screening tool, the Index for Interceptive Orthodontics Referral was developed, to assist the dental frontliners during the routine orthodontic screening.

Keywords: Dental frontliners, Developing malocclusion, Referral grading, Orthodontic referral, Index for interceptive orthodontics referral, Interceptive orthodontics

References

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  5. O’Brien K, Wright J, Conboy F, Bagley L, Lewis D, Read M, et al. The effect of orthodontic referral guidelines: a randomised controlled trial. British Dental Journal. 2000;188(7):392–397. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4800492
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  9. Nordin N, Sinniah SD, Venkiteswaran A, Abdullah NM. Feasibility of the newly developed index for interceptive orthodontics referral (IIOR) and the user’s perception: A pilot study. Journal of Health and Translational Medicine. 2024;(Special Issue 1) 246–252. Available from: https://doi.org/10.22452/jummec.sp2024no1.23

COPYRIGHT

© 2025 Published by International Dental Educationists’ Association (IDEA). This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 

  • 23 July 2025
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