Prevalence of Removable Functional Appliance Usage in the Management of Class II Malocclusion

Abstract

A Removable functional appliance is composed of polished acrylic shields and stainless steel wires prescribed for patients with more pronounced class II malocclusion or open bite. These appliances work comfortably with a patient’s inherent growth to produce the desired Skeletal or Dental development. It can be achieved by dentoalveolar effects, alteration of soft tissue and utilisation of greater Mandibular growth potential. The commonly used Removable functional appliances are Twin Block appliance, Activator, Bionator, Frankel appliance, etc. This study aims to assess the frequency of the usage of removable functional appliances in a hospital based set up. The data of patients undergoing Removable functional appliance therapy was retrieved from the case sheets of the patients.The collected data was tabulated in Excel and statistically analysed with the help of SPSS software. From the results obtained, Twin block appliance was the most prevalent Removable functional appliance with a frequency of 60.6%. Frankel appliance and Activator each had a frequency of 9.1%. Based on the age, Twin block appliance was preferred for the age group 10-15 years, Frankel appliance for 5-10 years, Activator and Other appliances for 10-15 years. Therefore, within the limits of this study, we observed that Twin block appliance was the most preferred Removable functional appliance used in the management of Class II malocclusion and the most common age group receiving appliance therapy is 10-15 years.