Introduction
With the change of the society common practice and the development of the economy, the importance of maintaining oral hygiene and achieving a fine occlusal relationship are perceived by public. For the clinical treatment of the dentist, to maintain the health of the natural dentition, to reconstruct the deficient teeth and to provide normal chewing function are the goal. A testing tool which could be reflected the individual chewing function conveniently, correctly in the judgment of the clinical treatment is important. The goal of this research is to establish an efficient method in chewing food evaluation and hope to get some help in the treatment of malocclusion and functional assessment.
Materials and methods
Five volunteers, who struggled with functional anterior crossbite and they were treated with edgewise appliance and Improved super-elastic Ti-Ni arch wire in the Orthodontic Department of China Medical University Hospital. We collected the digital images at the different period of treatment and measured the trajectory of the mandibular border movement and chewing movement with DigiGnatho V1.3. For all the patients, the anterior functional crossbite were corrected around 12 weeks, and the whole treatment duration was finished within 1 years.
Results
The vertical distance of the mandibular border movement was decreased when the anterior functional crossbite were corrected. The vertical and anterior-posterior displacements were increased from the bite-corrected to the stable occlusion was establishes. However for the horizontal direction, there was no significant different in the displacement among different steps of the treatment.
The trajectory of the chewing movement was wider in the vertical direction, but no significant difference in horizontal and anterior-posterior direction during the bite-corrected to the stable occlusion established.
The maximum velocity of the mouth opening and closing while chewing was increased significantly, the maximum velocity position was displaced inferiorly, and the average velocity was also increased during the bite-corrected to the stable occlusion established.
Conclusion
After the treatment of functional anterior crossbite, the chewing function was changed immediately, and the obvious outcome was shown in the increase of the chewing velocity.
