Prevalence and severity of vestibular recession in mandibular incisors after orthodontic treatment.

An interesting large sample, retrospective study can be found at the "ahead of print" at the Angle Orthodontist website. 
The study is from Oslo University, Norway, and it is a collaboration of the perio and orthodontic departments. 
A sample of 588 patients was analyzed, with intraoral photos, plaque accumulation, inflammation, and cephalometric measurements (A-Pog, Incisors inclination, ML-NSL, NL-NSL) regarding the mandibular incisors recessions. The Miller classification was used.


Conclusions:

• 10,3% of the cases were found with recessions: 8,6% Miller Class I and 1,7% Miller Class II. That is not a very large prevalence.
• In the presence of gingival recession, retroclination of the mandibular incisors in cases of mesial basal relation (Angle Class III) seems to increase the risk of a more severe gingival recession.
• Keeping the gingiva in the mandibular frontal area as healthy as possible during orthodontic treatment appears to be the determinant in the development of gingival recession. Inflammation seems to be a contributory factor for this condition. A careful examination of the buccal gingiva in the lower incisors, before deciding the amount of movement of these teeth, seems important.

Link of the study

D.G.