Functional and esthetic rehabilitation for a preschooler child using modified Groper's appliance: a clinical case report

Premature loss of primary teeth affects child's nutrition, sleep, growth, and self-confidence. Besides, it can cause undesirable movement of the primary or permanent teeth.

This paper reports a 5.5-year old boy presenting with severe-early childhood caries, who had suffered from early extraction of some primary teeth as well as several other dental problems. After thorough clinical and radiographic evaluations, the treatment plan consisted of two phases. In the first phase, the focus of the treatment was on oral hygiene instruction, fluoride therapy, restorative procedures, pulp treatments, and extraction of non-restorable teeth. In the second phase, space management strategies were considered.

We designed a new modification of Groper's appliance to serve as space regainer and space maintainer, simultaneously. By replacing the extracted primary anterior teeth, both the parents and the patient were satisfied with the results.