A 3-Year Evaluation of Anterior Open Bite Treatment Stability with Occlusal Adjustment

Objective: To evaluate the effect of deciduous teeth grinding during mixed dentition, by the control of permanent molars eruption, using contemporary MEA appliance and palatal grid for anterior open-bite treatment. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 31 patients with a pre-treatment mean age of 9.09 years. At the time of drawing up this manuscript, 14 patients of the entire sample reach the 3 years follow-up. The occlusal adjustment procedure was performed in centric relation. Every patient was treated in the second phase with fixed arch wires and finally a fixed lower retainer was placed. Pretreatment and posttreatment cephalometric changes were compared with dependent t tests. Results: Superimposition of pre- and post-treatment cephalometric tracings, showed an advancement of A-point and ANS towards an anterior-lower direction. Overbite increased significantly with treatment and caused significant changes in other skeletal and dentoalveolar variables. The dependent t test analysis confirmed the statistical significance of the results showed (t test 0,000137, P< 0.05). After 3 years of follow-up, the sample (n=14) show minimal changes in cephalometric values Conclusion: The selected sample showed a variable skeletal relationship except for a marked anterior open-bite which underwent this treatment procedure. Despite these odds, the findings of this study suggest that openbite treatment with occlusal adjustment provides statistically significant results and clinically good stability over time.