ABSTRACT
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) plays an important role in diagnosis for many head and neck lesions. Both clinical and experimental studies have shown that orthodontic appliances may produce image distortion on MRI scans of the head and neck. A case is presented in which the patient complained of unexplained right-sided facial paraesthesia, whilst undergoing fixed appliance orthodontic treatment. This was a serious symptom, which warranted investigation including a MRI scan. The compatibility of fixed appliances with MRI is discussed.
Subject(s)
Brain Neoplasms/diagnosis , Hemangioma, Cavernous, Central Nervous System/diagnosis , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Orthodontic Appliances , Adolescent , Artifacts , Brain Neoplasms/complications , Brain Stem , Facial Nerve Diseases/etiology , Hemangioma, Cavernous, Central Nervous System/complications , Humans , Male , Paresthesia/etiologyABSTRACT
Standard orthodontic facebows may accidentally detach from the appliance buccal tubes at night; this could reduce the effectiveness of extra oral traction and occasionally cause an injury. To try and prevent facebow detachment at night a facebow with a locking mechanism was introduced. This study assessed the ability of 706 consecutively treated patients to learn to wear and use this facebow. The facebows were fitted in 9 different practices supervised by 12 orthodontists. Data from the patients and orthodontists were collected over a 2-year period and covered approximately 166,550 nights. All the orthodontists were able to fit and adjust the facebow; a total of 697 patients successfully used the facebow. Accidental detachment of the facebow at night was reported to be less than 1%. This indicates a significant improvement in the safety of the facebow and should help to improve compliance by increasing the number of hours of wear achieved by the patients.