Early treatment to correct Class III relations with or without face masks.

OBJECTIVE: To determine what therapeutic effects can be expected in the case of early treatment of Class III relations with removable appliances with or without face masks.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Records available at the university clinic of Tübingen for 41 patients who had undergone early treatment because of prognathic abnormalities were retrospectively evaluated. Lateral cephalograms taken and casts obtained at baseline and at the end of early treatment were included in the analysis. Two treatment strategies were compared. The first group included removable functional orthopedic appliances only (FOA group), while the second group was treated with removable appliances and with face masks mounted on a cemented maxillary expansion appliance (face mask group).

RESULTS: Positive changes were achieved in both groups for overjet (FOA group: +1.3 mm; face mask group: +2.2 mm) and Wits values (FOA group: +0.4 mm; face mask group: 1.7 mm). Moreover, a change in mean ANB values was achieved in the face mask group (+0.9 degrees ). The FOA group exhibited a reduction in mandibular angles. Changes in maxillary inclination with reduced inclination angles led to increases in overjet and overbite. The face mask group showed dorsal rotation of the mandible with reduced SNB values (-0.8 degrees ).

CONCLUSION: Early treatment of prognathism is a meaningful option, as demonstrated by the dentoskeletal (and hence functional) improvements observed in the present study.