SPLINTS MADE OF WIRE AND COMPOSITE - AN INVESTIGATION OF LATERAL TOOTH MOBILITY IN-VIVO

In 103 posttraumatic splints, lateral tooth mobility was measured with Periotest immediately before and after the routine splint removal. Th e splints were made of composite resin and an 0.017X0.025 '' orthodont ic steel wire. 481 teeth were measured. A statistic evaluation reveale d that the immobilisation effect did not exceed normal tooth firmness. Fixation to one neighbouring tooth had less effect than fixation to t wo. Adjacent tooth gaps reduced the effect. Splint extensions had no i nfluence. With the use of the Periotest device, more than 50% of all t eeth with a true mobility of 20 Periotest-units or more were detectabl e as mobile in spite of the fixed splint.