Assessment of early orthodontic treatment on functional shifts by telemonitoring mandibular movements using a smart phone

Abstract

Introduction: To assess effect of orthodontic treatment on anterior or lateral functional shift in mixed dentition stage by telemonitoring mandibular movements in four-dimensions using a novel objective method that can assist in orthodontics and other dental specialties without the need of expensive, bulky or complicated equipment.

Methods: A sample of 60 patients was divided into two groups. Group I included 30 patients with normal occlusion and TMJ functions. Group II included 30 patients that were diagnosed with an abnormal path of closure in antero-posterior or transverse directions due to disharmony between centric occlusion and centric relation. The latter group was orthodontically treated and mandibular movements were measured before, during, directly after orthodontic treatment, and one year after treatment using our proposed method. To evaluate validity and reliability of our method, it was compared with two methods, a commercially available mandibular scanner, and a low-cost graphical method that utilizes a sheet of wax and a stylus.

Results: It was found that the overall differences between opening and closing curves of our proposed method and the other two methods were small and negligible (p > 0.05).

Discussion: It was found that our proposed method is offering a reasonably accurate, simple and rapid way to telemonitor the mandible movements in four-dimensions using the rear/front camera of any smart-phone.

Keywords: Orthodontics; four dimensions; functional shifts; mandibular telemonitoring; smart phone.