Prevalence of space maintainers as a treatment modality in maxillary arch among children between the age group of 6 to 12 years-a retrospective study

Abstract

Early loss of primary teeth can affect the arch length and thereby lead to malocclusion. Space maintainers were introduced to effectively maintain the space after a premature tooth loss. This study aims to assess the prevalence of various space maintainers provided in the maxillary arch among children aged 6 to 12 years and describes the trends in the use of space maintainers to bring about better understanding about these appliances. The patient records from June 2019-April 2020 of children who underwent space maintainer therapy in maxillary arch were selected by non-probability sampling. Data was collected and exported to the Statistical package for social science for windows (SPSS version 20.0,IL,Chicago,USA) for analysis. The results of the study showed that among the space maintainers provided, Band and loops (51.6%) were commonly used followed by Groper’s appliance (27.4%). The rarely provided space maintainers were Transpalatal arch (1.6%). The use of space maintainers in the maxillary arch had a male predominance (62.9%). The age of the children for whom space maintainers were commonly provided were 8 year olds (53.2%). Age and type of the space maintainer given was found to have no strong association (p=0.264, p>0.005). The study draws attention to the fact that space maintainers are widely used in Paediatric dentistry as a part of preventive orthodontics. In this study, Band and loop space maintainers were prevalent. Male dominance was observed and use of space maintainers especially in the age of 8 years was common. There was no association between age and the type of space maintainers used. Extensive research based on space maintainers and the dentist’s preferences and skill regarding the same has to be done. Alternatives for the current space maintainers have to be found to overcome their drawbacks .