ABSTRACT Anterior crossbites would normally require early intervention, especially when associated with mandibular displacements. The intervention would usually commence in children around the age of eight and nine, where treatment could be a challenge at this age. Therefore, a simple and quick treatment to this malocclusion would be desirable. This case series illustrates two cases of anterior crossbite with a functional shift that were successfully corrected using a simplified fixed technique, which involved a short-span nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) aligning round archwire, composite resin and glass ionomer cement (GIC).
Malocclusion ; Orthodontics, Corrective--methods

Intermaxillary tooth size discrepancy (TSD) is the disproportion in patients’ tooth size that is usually referred to the Bolton analysis. This size imbalance may also affect the outcome of orthodontic treatment. Therefore, this retrospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intermaxillary tooth size discrepancy (TSD) beyond 2 standard deviation (2 SD) from Bolton’s mean in orthodontic patients and to evaluate the effect of TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean on orthodontic treatment outcomes. A total of 226 sets of orthodontic study models that met the selection criteria were selected from 3077 orthodontic cases. Bolton's analysis of the anterior and overall ratios was performed on each of the pre-treatment models. The orthodontic treatment outcomes for the cases which were identified of having TSD beyond 2 SD were evaluated and any interventional techniques to improve the outcome of the treatment were recorded. The results showed that 29.20% of cases had TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean. 26.54% of cases had anterior ratio of more than 2 SD. Meanwhile, 7.08% of cases had an overall ratio greater than 2 SD. Of all cases with TSD beyond 2 SP, most of these cases (62.12%) had affected the outcome of orthodontic treatment. In conclusion, there is more than one quarter of orthodontic patients present with TSD beyond 2 SD of Bolton’s mean which may influence the outcome of orthodontic treatment. Intervention techniques should be carefully planned to achieve satisfactory treatment outcomes.

Retention phase is fundamental in orthodontic treatment. Around 70% of patients are subjected to relapse postorthodontic treatment. The risk of relapse can be minimized by prescribing a retainer suitable to a patient’s pre-treatment clinical condition and based on retention characteristics of retainers. When removable retainers are prescribed, responsibility of maintaining tooth stability lies on patients. Recent idea has been proposed that removable retainer should be worn indefinitely in order to maintain the treatment result. Therefore, the understanding of retention characteristics of removable retainers is important for promoting patient compliance and satisfaction. This article focuses on reviewing the use of removable retainers in relation to preferences among clinicians, patient acceptability, effectiveness, compliance, as well as retention regimes. An electronic search was conducted in the PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and Scopus database. The search was performed up to June 2020 using a variety of keywords including orthodontic retainers, Hawley, vacuum formed and retention. Among the 248 publications that were initially searched, total of 56 publications were finally included. Twenty-seven were observational (6 prospective; 16 cross-sectional, 4 retrospective, and 1 case series), fourteen experimental, fourteen review articles, and one opinion piece. Although quite a number of reviews on removable retainers were available, several significant papers have been published recently. Furthermore, a guideline on retention regime is warranted.