2015 AAO Winter Conf - Early Class II Treatment

One of the most heated controversies in orthodontics concerns the role of early treatment for the correction of Class II malocclusion. These concerns have been based primarily on the interpretation of the outcomes of the randomized clinical trials (RCT) conducted at three leading universities. Although these studies must be considered milestones in orthodontic research, the results might not be relevant to the “real” world of orthodontic practice. This presentation will describe the clinical outcomes of orthodontic intervention of retrospectively collected random samples from the three private practices where the comprehensive early treatment modality is routinely delivered by the advocates of mixed dentition treatment. The discussion will focus on the effectiveness of early comprehensive treatment of patients with moderately severe Class II malocclusions when compared to the changes observed in untreated Class II and late single-phase Class II treatment samples. Other benefits and limitation will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a brief history of mixed dentition treatment
• Describe the general rationale and protocol for comprehensive mixed dentition orthodontic treatment
• Recognize the effectiveness and benefits of early treatment in developing moderately severe Class II malocclusion in mixed dentition stage