Color preferences of patients tists stock and present to their patients? A com- “less noticeable,” while ligatures with more strik- ment on this subject has suggested that about 10 ing colors such as pink, yellow, and purple were colors should be stocked at all times.1 defined as “colorful.” To elucidate this aspect of fixed-appliance Chi-square analysis was performed to evalu- orthodontic therapy, the color preferences for ate the color preferences and to determine the elastic ligatures among patients receiving fixed influence of age and gender on color preferences orthodontic appliances were determined and the (P<.05). influence of age and gender on these preferences rEsuLts was evaluated. The age and gender distributions of the pa- MAtErIALs And MEtHods tients are provided in Table 1. Two hundred and Five hundred patients (336 female patients and seventy-six patients (55.2%) preferred colorful 164 male patients) were included in this study. elastic ligatures, while 224 (44.8%) chose less- Patients who had received metal brackets and noticeable elastic ligatures (Table 2). were at least in the 4th month of fixed-appliance The distribution of color preferences among orthodontic treatment were included, because, in the patients who chose colorful elastic ligatures is comparison with the patients in the earlier stages as follows: pink, 59 (21.4%); light blue, 34 (12.3%); of treatment, these patients were more experi- blue, 33 (12.0%); lilac, 29 (10.5%); fire red, 24 enced in choosing ligatures. The color preferences (8.7%); lime, 20 (7.2%); black, 20 (7.2%); yellow, of the patients were recorded using a color scale 11 (4.0%); and purple, 11 (4.0%) (Table 3). The dis- available on the market (American Orthodontics, tribution of color preferences among the patients Sheboygan, WI, U.S.A.) (Figure 1). One preferred who chose less-noticeable elastic ligatures is as color was recorded for each patient. follows: transparent, 184 (82.1%); white, 19 (8.5%); Transparent ligatures and ligatures with colors silver, 17 (7.9%); and pearl, 4 (1.8%) (Table 4). such as white, pearl, and silver were defined as The relationship between gender and color preference is presented in Table 5. No signifi- cant difference was observed between the color preferences of female and male patients (P>.05). However, significant differences were observed between the color preferences among patients of different age groups (Table 6; P<.001); older pa- tients preferred elastic ligatures with less-notice- 172 Figure 1. Color scale. European Journal of Dentistry Table 1. Characteristics of the patients. Number Percentage Number of patients Gender-related distribution Female Male ≤15 16-20 ≥21 Age-related distribution 500 336 164 197 228 75 - 67.2 32.8 39.4 45.6 15.0 Table 2. Distribution of color preference of patients. Colorful Less-noticeable Number 276 224 Percentage 55.2 44.8