American Journal of Orthodontics & Dentofacial OrthopedicsVolume 143, Issue 2 , Pages 206-212, February 2013
Introduction
Our aim was to assess the prevalence of gingival
recessions in patients before, immediately after, and 2 and 5 years
after orthodontic treatment.
Methods
Labial gingival
recessions in all teeth were scored (yes or no) by 2 raters on initial,
end-of-treatment, and posttreatment (2 and 5 years) plaster models of
302 orthodontic patients (38.7% male; 61.3% female) selected from a
posttreatment archive. Their mean ages were 13.6 years (SD, 3.6; range,
9.5-32.7 years) at the initial assessment, 16.2 years (SD, 3.5; range,
11.7-35.1 years) at the end of treatment, 18.6 years (SD, 3.6; range,
13.7-37.2 years) at 2 years posttreatment, and 21.6 (SD, 3.5; range,
16.6-40.2 years) at 5 years posttreatment. A recession was noted (scored
“yes”) if the labial cementoenamel junction was exposed. All patients
had a fixed retainer bonded to either the mandibular canines only (type
I) or all 6 mandibular front teeth (type II).
Results
There
was a continuous increase in gingival recessions after treatment from
7% at end of treatment to 20% at 2 years posttreatment and to 38% at 5
years posttreatment. Patients less than 16 years of age at the end of
treatment were less likely to develop recessions than patients more than
16 years at the end of treatment (
P = 0.013). The prevalence of recessions was not associated with sex (
P = 0.462) or extraction treatment (
P = 0.32). The type of fixed retainer did not influence the development of recessions in the mandibular front region (
P = 0.231).
Conclusions
The
prevalence of gingival recessions steadily increases after orthodontic
treatment. The recessions are more prevalent in older than in younger
patients. No variable, except for age at the end of treatment, seems to
be associated with the development of gingival recessions.
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