EVALUATION OF LONG-TERM STABILITY OF EDGEWISE ORTHODONTIC TECHNIQUE

¹ Postgraduate School of Orthodontics, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Correspondence to:

Annals of Stomatology 2023 January-April; 3(1): 6-10
https://doi.org/10.69129/stomatol/2023v3iss1_6

Received: 4 January 2023 Accepted: 10 February 2023

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Abstract

The relapse of teeth after orthodontic treatment has been a topic of ongoing interest for practitioners. The instability of the orthodontic treatment depends on different variables, such as the normal developmental maturation process of the maxillofacial complex. It is common to use posttreatment retentions to avoid a relapse, permanent or removable, depending on the previous malocclusion. The casts of 15 subjects treated with the edgewise technique between 1985 and 2000 were selected to evaluate dental arch changes among 17 years posttreatment. Time points were pretreatment (T1), post-treatment (T2) and follow-up (T3). The parameters considered were intercanine, interpremolar and intermolar width, dental arch length and crowding. The collected data were submitted for statistical analysis. The intercanine width outcome is the most significant, with the greater changes observed during the treatment among T1 and T2, maintained over time as the difference between T3 and T1 is statistically significant. The other parameter values were not statistically significant. Within the field of the edgewise technique, the intercanine width outcome is the most significant: greater changes from the pre-treatment to the post-treatment condition led to more significant relapse.

Keywords: edgewise technique, intercanine width, relapse, stability