The effect of lower anterior high pull headgear on treatment of moderate open bite in adults

Various methods are used for treatment of open bite. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of Lower Anterior High Pull Headgear (LAHPH) appliance in Class I subjects with moderate open bite and high lower lip line.

The study group was composed of 10 subjects with a mean age of 15.8±2.5 years and 3.05 ± 0.07 mm moderate open bite. All the patients rejected orthognathic surgery. The treatment included extraction of upper and lower second premolars followed by leveling, banding, bonding, posterior space closure, and anterior retraction. After these procedures, the open bite was reduced to 2.04±1.17 mm. Afterwards, LAHPH was applied for 18 hours per day for 8±2 months. LAHPH appliance was composed of High Pull Headgear and two hooks mounted on its inner bow. Two elastics (1.8, light, Dentaurum) connected the upper hooks on the inner bow to the lower hooks on the mandibular canines vertically. The forces produced by the prescribed elastics were 10 and 60 g during mouth closing and opening, respectively. Paired T-test was used to evaluate pre-and post-treatment outcomes.

The pre-and post-treatment cephalometric evaluations showed that the LAHPH reduced effectively the open bite of the patients to 0.15±1.7 mm (P<0.001).

This appliance can be used as an acceptable method for closing the open bite in Class I subjects.