Long Term Stability Follow-up of ABO cases 30 Years Post-treatment

  • Raymond Sugiyama, United States

Stability following orthodontic treatment is the most important goal in orthodontics. It is interesting to note that articles and studies regarding Long Term Stability rarely appear in the orthodontic literature. Ten years after I took my examination for certification by the American Board of Orthodontics I began monitoring my ABO cases every ten years. In this presentation I will show what some of these case look like thirty years after treatment. All of the cases were treated with full banded appliances. None of the cases have been re-treated with either removable or fixed appliances.The protocol for upper and lower Hawley retainer wear at that time was full time wear for one year followed by night time wear thereafter. It was recommended that the third molar teeth be removed at the appropriate time. I have found that the most stable cases are those that were treated with minimum expansion, finishing with a similar arch form as the original, performing supracrestal fibrotomy of previously rotated teeth, following the principles of relapse prevention and finishing the occlusion in maximum interdigitation.