High Frenal Attachment - As a risk Factor of Midline Diastema

Abstract

Dental esthetics is a field of dentistry concerned especially with the appearance of dentition as achieved through its arrangement, form and color. The type of malocclusion, the degree of malocclusion, age, patients’ esthetic desires, practitioners’ style of treatment as well as gender predilection can influence the final esthetic treatment the patient will be subjected to. From functional demands, over the years, patients’ demands have dynamically shifted to meeting the maximum esthetics possible. In older patients, it is difficult to treat the malocclusion by only utilising orthodontic procedures, hence bringing in the requirement of performing a multidisciplinary approach of dental treatment to provide the maximum esthetics for the patient. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of high frenal attachments as a risk for midline diastema. A sample size of 272 patients' information from the Dental Information Archiving Software database of an institutional setup in Chennai was taken, and a retrospective study was performed followed by data analysis using SPSS version 20.0 software. Within the limits of the study, it can be said that 13.6% of the midline diastema cases are caused by high frenal attachments.  No significant association between age, gender and frenal attachments associated with midline diastema was confirmed in this study. P-value associated with high frenal attachment and age was 0.28, and P-value associated with high frenal attachment and gender was 0.39.