Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of glass fiber reinforced composite resin as a space maintainer and its comparison with the conventional band and loop space maintainer. An in vivo study.

AIM: Premature primary tooth loss may result in deleterious changes in dental arch integrity like space loss, crowding and midline shift, compromising the eruption of succedaneous teeth and altering the development of normal occlusion. The most confident way to cope with these problems is through the use of space maintainers. Today is an era of bondontics, which gives us a chance to test challenging materials like glass fiber reinforced composite resin (GFRCR) as a space maintainer. The objective of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy of GFRCR as a space maintainer and to compare it with the conventional Band and Loop space maintainer.

METHODS

Twenty children aged 4-9 years requiring bilateral space maintainers for premature loss of primary first molar or primary second molar were selected for the study. GFRCR and Band and Loop space maintainers were applied bilaterally and their retention was evaluated at 1, 3 and 5 months interval.

RESULTS

In comparison to band and loop space maintainers, the GFRCR space maintainers showed a higher success but the difference was statistically non significant.

CONCLUSION

This study showed that GFRCR space maintainer can be a new alternative to the conventional space maintainer for short-term space maintenance for primary tooth loss.