Effects of Fixed and Removable Space Maintainers on Periodontal Health and DMFT/Dft Values

Effects of Space Maintainers on Oral Health

Space maintainers are appliances that applied when primary teeth were lost prematurely because of many reasons such as tooth decay, trauma, lack of germ of permanent tooth.4 Space problems play an important role in practice of dentistry and also understanding of the dental development in the primary and mixed dentitions could help to intercept the malocclusion.The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of applied space maintainers on periodontal health and dental status after teeth missing in pediatric dentistry clinic.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry (No:2014/8) and was carried out in agreement with the Declaration of Helsinki principles. This study conducted 104 patient whose age between the range of 4-15 years were chosen to applied fixed (band and loop, palatal arch, lingual arch) or removable space maintainers in Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry Department of Pediatric Dentistry were followed between years of 2013-2014. Totally, four of the patients excluded due to systemically and genetically disorder.

In primary and mixed dentition, dft index was used and in permanent dentition DMFT index was used. Longevity time in the mouth, the number of developing new caries were evaluated and DMFT/dft and plaque index were compared.

Inclusion Criteria:

• healthy and applied space maintainer patients

Exclusion Criteria:

• unhealthy and non-applied space maintainer patients