Interceptive treatment effects of EF preformed appliance in pre-pubertal and pubertal skeletal Class II growing...

Interceptive treatment has been devised to improve the outcomes on growth stage and mandibular repositioning in Class II patients. The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of Functional education (EF) (OrthoPlus, Igny, France) preformed appliance in skeletal Class II growing patients at CVM2 and CMV3 stages.

Study design: retrospective controlled study. Eighty skeletal Class II growing subjects were recruited for the study. Lateral X-rays and cephalograms were required at the beginning (T0) and at the end (T1) of the EF treatment to evaluate dento-skeletal changes. The same sub-division and sample size were adopted for respective untreated control groups.

At prepubertal stage, the EF device showed a significant reduction of upper incisors proclination. When comparing dentoskeletal variables in the pubertal groups, significant differences were shown. In the treated group the SN^B angle increased, with the B Downs landmark moving forward. Wits index improved by 2.16 mm in the study group with an increase of all mandibular linear measurements. Fewer but significant dental changes were shown for 11^41 angle, with a mean increase of 8.90°.

For multiple comparisons, the Tukey test at 95% family-wise confidence level was used. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Statistical analyses were conducted using the R statistical package (version 3.0.3, R Core Team, Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria).

EF appliance seems to be effective in the treatment of Class II growing patients. Significant improvements in upper incisors proclination and mandibular elongation are shown.