Evaluation of Cervical spine Posture following Twin Block Functional Appliance Therapy: A Longitudinal study

Abstract

Objectives & Background: The authors compared postural changes produced by Twin block functional appliance therapy in 15 Asian children (10 males and 5 females) using cephalometrics by comparing pretreatment and post treatment values related to posture. Materials & methods: All 15 children were treated by same operator and mean average age of the sample was 10.8 years. Pre and post lateral cephalograms were taken using same specications, 16 parameters were identied and evaluated by a single examiner. Results: The values were tabulated and subjected to SPSS software. The statistical tests performed were Shapiro-Wilk test and paired t test. The cervical parameters such as SN-OPT, PP-OPT, MP-OPT show a decrease in values which suggests cranio-cervical posture to be more upright after twin block therapy. Conclusions: Subjects with Class II malocclusion due to mandibular retrognathism with a reduced vertical dimension have a greater forward inclination of the cranio-cervical posture. The Twin Block therapy improves the sagittal relationships between the maxilla and mandible. The Twin Block therapy makes the cranio-cervical posture to be more upright.