Evaluation of pre- and post-treatment masticatory and bite force efficiency in patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment and orthognathic surgery using T-Scan Novus occlusal analysis: A factorial randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND: Orthodontic and orthognathic surgical treatment require quantified occlusion finish to rule out any temporomandibular disorders. Hence, the present study was proposed to analyze the occlusal efficiency in patients undergoing fixed orthodontic and combined orthodontic–orthognathic surgery using digital occlusal analysis. METHODOLOGY: A randomized multi-arm controlled trial was conducted on 55 patients divided into four groups, that is, group I: class I crowding/proclination required extraction for fixed orthodontic treatment, group II: class II div 1 required orthodontic treatment and/or myofunctional therapy, group III: skeletal class II required combined orthodontic and orthognathic surgical treatment, and group IV: skeletal class III required combined orthodontic and orthognathic surgical treatment. The pre-treatment, before debonding, and 1 year after debonding assessment of occlusion were carried out using T-Scan. The repeated analysis of variance (rANOVA) test along with post-hoc analysis was carried out for intra-group and inter-group assessments using SPSS (version 21, USA). The significance level was set at a ‘P’ value less than 0.05. RESULTS: rANOVA measurement in groups I, II, and III showed a significant difference with respect to maximum bite force difference between right and left sides, anterior and posterior region, and left lateral disclusion time. However, group IV showed a significant difference with respect to maximum bite force in the anterior and posterior region as well as right and left lateral disclusion time only. Further application of the post-hoc Tukey test found a significant difference between the T(o) value to T(1) and T(2) among all four groups. CONCLUSION: Improved bite force was found in all malocclusion groups which was gradual in improvement from pre-treatment to post-treatment and a subsequent retention phase. The study also reported the utility of digital occlusal assessment devices as reliable, repeatable, reproducible, and user-friendly in the determination of dynamic occlusion.