Duration of surgical-orthodontic treatment.
OBJECTIVE
To study the duration of surgical-orthodontic treatment with special reference to patients' age and the type of tooth movements, i.e. extraction vs. non-extraction and intrusion before or extrusion after surgery to level the curve of Spee.


METHODS
The material consisted files of 37 consecutive surgical-orthodontic patients. The files were reviewed and gender, diagnosis, type of malocclusion, age at the initiation of treatment, duration of treatment, type of tooth movements (extraction vs. non-extraction and levelling of the curve of Spee before or after operation) and type of operation were retrieved. For statistical analyses two sample t-test, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman rank correlation tests were used.


RESULTS
Mean treatment duration of the sample was 26.8 months, of which pre-surgical orthodontics took on average 17.5 months. Patients with extractions as part of the treatment had statistically and clinically significantly longer treatment duration, on average 8 months, than those without extractions. No other studied variable seemed to have an impact on the treatment time.


CONCLUSIONS
The present small sample size prevents reliable conclusions to be made. However, the findings suggest, and patients should be informed, that extractions included in the treatment plan increase chances of longer duration of surgical-orthodontic treatment.
Häll
Birgitta
B
Department of Oral Development and Orthodontics, Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Jämsä
Tapio
T
Soukka
Tero
T
Peltomäki
Timo
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017050:Episode of Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000379:methods; D056948:Orthognathic Surgical Procedures; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D014081:Tooth Extraction; D055815:Young Adult