Dentofacial adaptations in adult patients following functional regulator therapy

The purpose of this article is to describe three cases in which young adult patients were treated with the functional regulator of Fränkel. Each patient had a Class II malocclusion with a degree of mandibular skeletal and dental retrusion. Each patient wore a functional regulator (FR-2), and treatment times varied from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 3 1/2 years. The length of the mandible did not increase significantly in any of the patients. In all cases, however, there were increases in vertical dimension. The analysis used in this study indicates that only minimal skeletal and dental adaptation occurred and that these adaptations were insufficient to completely resolve the patients' malocclusions.