Assessment of gingival recession in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances.

Objective: To assess the gingival recession in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances. Study Design: Descriptive Cross Sectional study. Setting: Department of Orthodontic, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science Jamshoro and Department of Orthodontic, Civil Hospital Hyderabad. Period: 05-01-2021 to 04-06-2021. Material & Methods: A total of 183 patients aged 18–35 have been included in this descriptive cross-sectional research study. After the history was taken, the study participants went through a clinical examination, but for those patients with ongoing fixed orthodontic treatment, at least three to six months of orthodontic treatment have been completed. Gingival recession was assessed using Millers’ classification and oral hygiene index. Results: The average age of 183 individuals was 22.75+2.29 years. Women outnumbered men 65.5% to 35.5%. According to the oral hygiene index, 28.4% of patients scored exceptional (0-0), 39.3% acceptable (0-0.6), 25.7% fair (0.7-1.8), and 6.6% bad (1.9-3.0). Marginal gingival tissue recession categorization showed that 66.6% of patients had no recession, 21.8% had class I, 10.9% had class II, 0.5% had class III, and 0% had class IV. According to oral hygienic index, marginal tissue recession categorization was significant (p=0.001). At 0.035 significance level, marginal tissue recession and oral hygiene score were positively linked (r=183). Conclusion: Most of the cases with fixed orthodontic appliances had no gingival tissue recession, only few cases seen class I and class II. However, this mild gingival tissue recession was significantly associated to oral hygienic index.