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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of forced mouth opening on murine mandibular condylar head remodeling. We hypothesized that forced mouth opening would cause an anabolic response in the mandibular condylar cartilage. Six-week-old female C57BL/6 mice were divided into 3 groups: (1) control, (2) 0.25 N, and (3) 0.50 N of forced mouth opening. Gene expression, micro-CT, and proliferation were analyzed. 0.5 N of forced mouth opening caused a significant increase in mRNA expression of Pthrp, Sox9, and Collagen2a1, a significant increase in proliferation, and a significant increase in trabecular spacing in the subchondral bone, whereas 0.25 N of forced mouth opening did not cause any significant changes in any of the parameters examined. Forced mouth opening causes an increase in the expression of chondrocyte maturation markers and an increase in subchondral trabecular spacing.

Objective: To compare the dentoskeletal effects and treatment efficiency of the Twin Force Bite Corrector (TFBC) appliance in Class II correction of patients treated before or after the pubertal growth spurt. Materials and Methods: Forty-one normodivergent Class II patients treated with the TFBC appliance were divided into two groups based on their cervical vertebral maturation stage (CVMS). Group 1 (G1) consisted of 23 patients (mean age 12.44 6 1.59 years) where treatment was initiated before the pubertal growth spurt (CVMS I and II), while group 2 (G2) consisted of 18 patients (mean age 13.76 6 1.44 years) where treatment was started after the pubertal growth spurt (CVMS III to V). Dentoskeletal measurements were made on lateral cephalograms taken before (T1) and after orthodontic treatment (T2). Results: During treatment, G1 had significantly greater skeletal correction than G2, with more dentoalveolar effects being observed in G2 than G1. However, on comparing both groups at the end of treatment (T2) when growth is complete, no differences in the parameters measured were observed. Overall, treatment time was significantly longer for G1 (3.67 6 1.45 years) compared to G2 (2.75 6 1.07 years). Conclusions: There is no difference in overall dentoskeletal effects obtained at the end of treatment by the TFBC appliance in normodivergent prepubertal vs postpubertal patients. However, treatment efficiency based on treatment timing is significantly greater for the postpubertal group. (Angle Orthod. 2013;83:718-727.)

Extraction of teeth is an important treatment decision in orthodontic practice. An expert system that is able to arrive at suitable treatment decisions can be valuable to clinicians for verifying treatment plans, minimizing human error, training orthodontists, and improving reliability. In this work, we train a number of machine learning models for this prediction task using data for 287 patients, evaluated independently by five different orthodontists. We demonstrate why ensemble methods are particularly suited for this task. We evaluate the performance of the machine learning models and interpret the training behavior. We show that the results for our model are close to the level of agreement between different orthodontists.

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The purpose of this retrospective study was to quantify and compare the vertical dimensional changes in bialveolar dental protrusion patients undergoing extraction of all four first premolars between the preadjusted edgewise appliance (PEA) and the Begg appliance. The cephalometric records of 55 patients (14 males and 41 females) with Class I bimaxillary protrusion were selected and divided into two groups based on the appliance used, i.e Begg or PEA mechanotherapy. To minimize the effects of growth, the subjects were at least in stage VI of skeletal maturation. The mean age was 18.25 ± 3.2 years for the Begg group and 18.03 ± 3.5 years for the PEA group. Skeletal and dental changes were analysed in both groups on lateral cephalograms taken pre- (T1) and post- (T2) treatment. A Student's t-test was used to analyse the treatment changes. Within group results showed a significant increase in face height and extrusion and mesial movement of the upper and lower molars for both groups. However, no significant differences were observed when the groups were compared. A significant correlation was found between the change in lower molar to mandibular plane angle and lower anterior face height for both groups. No significant difference was found when the Begg mechanotherapy was compared to the PEA technique on vertical dimensional changes. It can be speculated that mesial movement of the molars tended to keep pace with their extrusion and negated any bite opening effect with both mechanotherapies.

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