Treatment of vertical problems with jaw functional orthopedics based on scientific evidence. Part 1: anterior open bite

The vertical problems of the stomatognathic system that alter the overbite, either by increasing in the deep bite (DB) or decreasing in the anterior open bite (AOB), are among the great challenges of the dentofacial corrections in the treatment and the retention and stability protocols. It is always good to report that a correct diagnosis is fundamental in the choice of treatment protocol and that skeletal involvement, be it hyper divergence in case of open bite or hypo divergence in case of deep bite, aggravates the problem and as a rule tends to increase treatment and containment time. In this paper the state of art of AOB treatment with Jaw Functional Orthopedics (JFO) will be discussed. It should be emphasized that JFO has a unique diagnostic tool for changes in vertical growth of the face, the Articular Compass, developed by Simões. Studies show that the use of treatment protocols developed by Simões, the SNs (SN2, SN3, SN6) act in the increase of overbite efficiently (P= 0.003) in cases of open bite. This is weak evidence, due to the design of the study, but with promising results, so Randomized Clinical Trials are needed to investigate if these results are replicable.