Different strategies used in the retention phase of orthodontic treatment

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify most frequent clinical conducts, considering the following variables: 1) used appliances; 2) time of use; 3) protocol of use in daily hours and evolution with along time; 4) percentage of patients in follow up 1 year after treatment; and 5) most frequent observed relapses.. METHODS: It was used a questionnaire distributed to all specialization course of Orthodontics inscribed in the Brazilian Federal Council of Dentistry until October of 2005. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: It was obtained 91 valid questionnaires. For data analysis were used descriptive statistics and chi-square for linear tendency and chi-square for linear trend and chi-square for multivariate linear trend. We can conclude that: 1) on upper arch, the most used appliances were Hawley, wraparound and acetate plate; in the lower multi-stranded rod, steel rod not bonded to incisors and rod bonded to the incisors; 2) it was indicated its use for more than 24 months for the upper arch, with a trend toward its less use than in the lower arch; 3) the protocol of use in the upper arch begins with 24 hours/day, reducing after the second year; for the lower arch the protocol of hours/day was kept stable; 4) after 1 year of retention most than 50% of treated cases were re-examined; 5) most common relapses were crowding, giroversion and opening of diastemas.