Orthopedic cervical headgear with an expanded inner bow in Class II correction

Forty consecutively referred children, 20 boys and 20 girls, with a Class I I division 1 malocclusion and protrusive maxilla were treated with orthoped ic cervical headgear with a 10 mm expanded inner bow and a long outer bow b ent 15 degrees upwards. The mean age of the children at the beginning of tr eatment was 9.3 years (SD 1.3, range 6.6 to 12,4 years), and the average tr eatment time was 1.8 years (SD 0.6, range 0.8 to 3.1 years). In all patient s Class II molar relationships were successfully corrected to Class I molar relationships. This was accompanied by a marked widening of both maxillary and mandibular dental arches. The cephalometric analysis suggested that th e observed improvement of the occlusion was due to an inhibition of forward growth of the maxilla and anterior downward rotation of the palate.