ABSTRACT

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the Eureka Spring (ES) appliance as a compliance-free alternative to intermaxillary elastics in the treatment of Class II malocclusions. The study was carried out with the measurements on pre- and post-treatment lateral cephalograms of 44 patients with Class II malocclusion who were treated with ES or intermaxillary elastics. Independent-samples t-test was used to evaluate differences between two groups. Paired-samples t-tests were used to evaluate pre- and post-treatment changes over time. It was determined that the ANB angle and overjet decreased significantly (p<0.01); and the SNB, SN/ Occ, L1/NB angle (p<0.05) and L1/Go-Gn angle (p<0.01) increased significantly in both of the groups. While the increase of SNB angle was more in the ES group (p<0.05), increase of L1/Go-Gn angle was more in the intermaxillary elastic group (p<0.05). Based on the results in this study, it can be concluded that the ES appliance shows similar effects with intermaxillary elastics and may be preferred as an alternative treatment especially for noncompliant patients.