Changes in lip contour following treatment of maxillary protrusion with esthetic orthodontic appliances.

With the advent of acid etching techniques and the elimination of unesthetic band materials, direct bonding of orthodontic attachments kindled a desire for cosmetic appliances such as labial ceramic brackets and lingual orthodontics. Owing to the esthetic nature of our combination upper-lingual lower-ceramic orthodontic approach, adults who would have normally avoided orthodontic treatment are now seeking treatment. This study evaluated the cephalometric changes in the soft tissue lip profile following treatment of Class II Division 1 malocclusion with upper first bicuspid extractions with our esthetic orthodontic appliance approach. Serial lateral cephalograms (pretreatment and posttreatment) of 16 adult patients with a mean age of 22.1 +/- 3.2 years were studied. The mean upper incisor retraction, upper lip retraction, upper lip lengthening, and lower lip retraction were 5.75 +/- 1.91 mm, 2.8 +/- 1.4 mm, 1.5 +/- 0.6 mm, and 1.4 +/- 0.6 mm, respectively. All these changes were statistically significant (p < 0.01). The nasolabial angle increase of 10.8 +/- 3.0 degrees was also statistically significant (p < 0.01). The upper lip retraction to upper incisor retraction was 1:2.1, while the upper lip lengthening to upper incisor retraction was 1:3.8. The correlation coefficients (r) were 0.91 (p < 0.01) and 0.57 (p < 0.01), respectively. This study shows that significant esthetic changes in lip profile are possible with this cosmetic orthodontic appliance approach. The treatment results in this study appear comparable to those published with labial metal brackets. With very few exceptions, patients were able to adapt within 2 weeks, with almost no trauma to the tongue.