[An evaluation of appliance hygiene index on patients wearing removable orthodontic appliance].

The appliance hygiene performance and its relationship with stomatitis lesions were investigated on 124 patients who were using maxillary removable orthodontic appliance. The patients were divided into five groups according to the appliance wearing periods. Appliance hygiene index (AHI) showed no significant difference between the groups except the fifth group and the prevalence of stomatitis was found as 8.9 percent. There was not any significant correlation between the quantity of plaque and the degree of stomatitis.