ASSESSMENT OF THE PATIENTS’ COURSE OF ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT WHO MOVED OUT OTHER CITIES TEMPORARILY AFTER THE 2011 EARTHQUAKE IN VAN

Aim: the aim of this study is to assess the patients’ course of orthodontic treatment that temporarily moved out of the city after the earthquakes happened in van while they were undergoing treatment in department of orthodontics faculty of dentistry university of yüzüncü yıl. subjects and methods: questionnaires were applied to gain information about orthodontic treatment courses of 137 patients who temporarily moved out of the city after two enormous devastating earthquakes happenend in the province of van on 23rd october 2011 (magnitude: 7.2 on the richter scale) and 9th november 2011 (magnitude: 5.6 on the richter scale). results: of the patients, who temporarily moved to other cities, 62% had chosen metropoles e.g. adana, ankara, antalya, bursa, diyarbakır, erzurum, eskişehir, istanbul, izmir, and mersin, while 38% had chosen other cities such as batman, bitlis, bolu, elazığ, kilis, kırklareli, malatya, siirt, sivas, tokat, and trabzon. the most preferred city was istanbul (17.5%). the most popular selection criteria in choosing cities was relatives living in those cities (76%). of the patients, 78% moved with family and 22% just moved himself or herself. while 40% of the patients were treated in the university clinics, 16% treated in private practice and 44% had round trips to van for appointments. conclusion: after two destructive earthquakes in van, our faculty restarted patient care in temporary container clinics in such a short time as one month. patient care in our orthodontic clinic also continued for patients coming from van and surrounding cities. 44% of our patients who temporarily moved to other cities had round trips for appointments to our clinic in this period.