Historically, humanity alternates cycles in its relentless search for explanations in the most diverse spheres, such as arts, philosophy or science. This restlessness, which is inherent to our species, seems to be followed by a certain conflict, because of ingrained beliefs or of habits that we wish to become permanent, be it for protective reasons or for comfort, or simply to establish a point of view.

The patient’s collaboration regarding the use of extra- oral appliances is a practically impossible task nowadays. With the advent of absolute anchorage using miniimplants, the anchorage problems were solved, favoring greater predictability for orthodontic treatment. The popularization of mini-implants was due not only to its effectiveness in maintaining the anchorage, but also due to its insertion ease, small size and low cost. Despite all the positive aspects, mini-implants may fail, and...

Professor Ambrosina Michelotti is one of the most important researchers in the field of Orthodontics, Temporomandibular Disorders and Orofacial Pain. I’m following her publications since I first read the revision article about the role of Orthodontics in Temporomandibular Disorders, published in 2010 on the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, which helps to elucidate in a very didactic way the concepts based on scientific evidence that link these two areas. As I am involved on the same field...

The teeth become very close to each other when they are crowded, but their structures remain individualized and, in this situation, the role of the epithelial rests of Malassez is fundamental to release the EGF. The concept of tensegrity is fundamental to understand the responses of tissues submitted to forces in body movements, including teeth and their stability in this process. The factors of tooth position stability in the arch — or dental tensegrity — should be considered when one...

Objective: To correlate skeletal age, standing height, upper and lower body lengths, and selected craniofacial growth features in a sample of growing individuals, and to model craniofacial growth using multivariate regression. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study with 447 African black boys and girls, between the ages 8 and 16 years, who attended the dental clinic at one hospital. The skeletal maturational age was determined from hand-wrist radiographs using the Greulich...

Objective: The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to assess the impact of malocclusion on the quality of life of children aged 8 to 10 years attending public elementary schools in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: The Brazilian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire 8-10 (CPQ8-10) was used to evaluate oral health-related quality of life. The children were examined for the diagnosis of malocclusion using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI). The data were...

Objective: This study aimed to assess if additional vertical bitewing (VBW) and/or occlusal (OC) radiographs may change initial judgment based only on periapical radiograph (PAR) about the final position of orthodontic mini-implants (OMI). Methods: Subjective and objective analyses were performed. Radiographic images of 26 OMI were divided into four groups: PAR, PAR+VBW, PAR+OC and ALL (PAR+VBW+OC). For subjective analysis, five observers were asked to assess if the position of OMI was...

Introduction: The attractiveness and facial aesthetics are commonly defined by the media in modern society and the number of patients seeking for changes in the facial appearance is progressively increasing. Augmented face convexity is believed to be non aesthetic and among the treatments available for its correction, the extraction of premolars followed by anterior teeth retraction produces a significant effect. However, it is questionable whether the procedure is reasonable in brown and...

Objective: The purposes of this study were to present a prototype of a bracket-positioning gauge, which makes vertical inclination of the instrument difficult, allowing a reduction of vertical bracket positioning error, and to test its accuracy in bracket positioning by groups of individuals with different clinical experience and in specific groups of teeth. Methods: For the testing of the prototype, four groups of six participants each were used: Group 1 was composed of undergraduate...

The purpose of this paper was to emphasize the importance of the orthodontic setup in treatment planning for skeletal Class III malocclusion correction in an adult patient with moderate lower anterior crowding and anterior crossbite associated with two supernumerary lower incisors.

Introduction: Considering the large number of fixed functional appliances, choosing the best device for your patient is not an easy task. Objective: To describe the development of fixed functional appliances as well as our 20-year experience working with them. Methods: Fixed functional appliances are grouped into flexible, rigid and hybrid. They are different appliances, whose action is described here. Four clinical cases will be reported with a view to illustrating the different appliances....