A clinical evaluation of a locking orthodontic facebow

Standard orthodontic facebows may accidentally detach from the appliance bu ccal tubes at night; this could reduce the effectiveness of extra oral trac tion and occasionally cause an injury. To try and prevent facebow detachmen t at night a facebow with a locking mechanism was introduced. This study as sessed the ability of 706 consecutively treated patients to learn to wear a nd use this facebow. The facebows were fitted in 9 different practices supe rvised by 12 orthodontists. Data from the patients and orthodontists were c ollected over a 2-year period and covered approximately 166,550 nights. All the orthodontists were able to fit and adjust the facebow; a total of 697 patients successfully used the facebow. Accidental detachment of the facebo w at night was reported to be less than 1%. This indicates a significant im provement in the safety of the facebow and should help to improve complianc e by increasing the number of hours of wear achieved by the patients.