Eysenck personality and psychosocial status of adult patients with malocclusion.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the personality and psychosocial status of adult malocclusion patients through the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90). METHODS The EPQ and the SCL-90 were administered to 348 adult respondents with Angle's Class I, II, III malocclusion and normal occlusion. Personality and psychosocial traits were analyzed and compared among the groups. RESULTS Patients in Angle's Class I, II and III groups scored lower on the EPQ-E and higher on the EPQ-N than those in the normal occlusion group, whereas patients in the Class II group scored higher on the EPQ-P. The mean scores of Class I, II and III groups were significantly higher than those of the normal group on somatization, obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and paranoid ideation. All SCL-90 scores were significantly positively correlated with EPQ-N. Psychoticism and neuroticism scores of female respondents were higher than those of male respondents. The impact of education was greatest on the EPQ-P and the EPQ-E of adult personality, whereas the impact of deformity was greatest on the EPQ-N of adult personality. CONCLUSIONS Personality and psychosocial status show differences in adult patients with Class I, II, III malocclusion and normal occlusion and can be influenced by gender, deformity, age and education.