Clinical Abstracts and Studies

• Frictional Forces
• Comparison of Maxillary Arch
• Self-Ligating vs. Conventional Brackets
• Damon System vs. Conventional Appliances
• Comparison of Resistance to Sliding
• Self-Ligating Treatment
• Treatment Time
• Self-Ligating in The Year 2000
• Interactive Edgewise Mechanisms
• Force Decay and Deformation
• Ligature Wires and Elastomeric Rings

Self-ligating vs conventional brackets in the treatment of mandibular crowding: A prospective clinical trial of treatment duration and dental effects

Pandis N, Polychronopoulou A, Eliades T. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics 2007; 132(2):208-215.

Objective

To investigate the duration of mandibular-crowding alleviation using self-ligation compared with conventional appliances.

Methodology

The study involved 54 patients who underwent non-extraction treatment and had an eruption of all mandibular teeth, no spaces in the mandibular arch, irregularity index greater than 2 in the mandibular arch, and no therapeutic intervention planned with extraoral or intraoral appliances. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups: One group received treatment using the Damon System, while the second group was treated using a conventional edgewise appliance with .022 slots. Measurements included changes in intercanine and intermolar widths.

Results

• The Damon System corrected moderate crowding in patients (irregularity index 5) 2.7 times faster than the conventional brackets.
• The Damon System corrected moderate crowding in patients (irregularity index 5) 2.7 times faster than the conventional brackets.
• No difference in increased proclination of the mandibular incisors was observed between groups.

Conclusion

Treatment using the Damon System results in greater intermolar width than conventional treatment with no difference in the amount of mandibular incisor proclination.