title: A clinical evaluation of a locking orthodontic facebow.
abstract: Standard orthodontic facebows may accidentally detach from the appliance buccal tubes at night; this could reduce the effectiveness of extra oral traction and occasionally cause an injury. To try and prevent facebow detachment at night a facebow with a locking mechanism was introduced. This study assessed the ability of 706 consecutively treated patients to learn to wear and use this facebow. The facebows were fitted in 9 different practices supervised by 12 orthodontists. Data from the patients and orthodontists were collected over a 2-year period and covered approximately 166,550 nights. All the orthodontists were able to fit and adjust the facebow; a total of 697 patients successfully used the facebow. Accidental detachment of the facebow at night was reported to be less than 1%. This indicates a significant improvement in the safety of the facebow and should help to improve compliance by increasing the number of hours of wear achieved by the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics and Restorative Dentistry, The Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK. russell.samuels@glenfield-tr.trent.nhs.uk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Samuels
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bhavra
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hills
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hug
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haining
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Biase
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Straw
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoyen-Chung
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005115:Extraoral Traction Appliances / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000145:classification; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016382:Orthodontic Appliance Design; D017289:Orthodontic Appliances, Functional; D009968:Orthodontic Appliances, Removable; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012449:Safety; D013499:Surface Properties