Effect of low pull headgear on head position

Objective

To evaluate changes in head position following the use of low pull headgear (LHG) and compare these changes with an untreated control group.

Subjects and methods

The test group comprised pre-treatment and post-treatment lateral cephalograms of 30 males, aged 11 ± 1.5 years, who were receiving LHG therapy for correction of Class II malocclusion. Pre-observation and post-observation lateral cephalograms of 25 untreated male subjects, aged 11 ± 1.6 years, served as controls. The average treatment time for the treatment group was 12 ± 2.02 months and the average observation period for the control group was 11 ± 1.03 months. Four postural variables (NSL/CVT, NSL/OPT, CVT/HOR, OPT/HOR) were measured to evaluate the head position in all subjects pre- and post-observations.

Results

There was no significant difference in all the measurements concerning the head position within each group (p > 0.05). The mean differences of pre- and post-observations of 4 postural variables in the LHG group were 1.43, 0.9, ?1.13, and ?1.08, while those of the control group were 1.56, ?0.32, ?0.24, and 0.04, respectively. There was no significant difference between the headgear and control groups for any of the postural variables measured (p = 0.924, 0.338, 0.448, and 0.398, respectively).

Conclusions

Although postural variables showed considerable variability in both groups, head position exhibited no significant changes over a period of 11–12 months either in the control or headgear group.