Hereditary Malocclusion

An account of an experimental treatment of a certain type of malocdusion has been recently published. The study was concerned prinliarily with testing the validity of an accepted principle of orthodontic treatment in a series of patients. Further observations on one of these patients, bearing on the etiology of her ocdusal deformity as well as on the problem of retention of the corrected teeth and jaw positons, have yielded additional information which will be presented here. The photograph shown in Fig. 8 is of the teeth of an eightyear-old girl, and was taken just before treatment was begun in 1934. Fig. 9 shows the condition of her ocdusion seven days later, when treatment was discontinued. It will be noted that although the patient has closed her bite as far as possible at this time, with the maxillary central incisors occluding labial to the four mandibular ones, the other teeth are still well out of occlusal contact. The improvement two weeks after treatment may be seen in Fig. 10. The condition continued to improve itself during the ensuing months without further treatment. The photograph shown in Fig. 11 was taken after a lapse of one year. Another photograph, Fig. 12, taken seven years after treatment was discontinued, indicates that the occlusal relationships of her teeth have become relatively stabilized. No artificial retention was employed following the condusion of treatment. It may not seem remarkable, on casual observation, that this deformity should have yielded so readily to such simple treatment, and that the corrected positions of the teeth and mandible were maintained without artificial retention. A consideration of an etiological ,factor, however, which apparently strongly influenced the production of this occlusal deformity, lends additional significance to the case. A perusal of the patient's family album, although incomplete, has yielded photographic evidence of the hereditary character of her malocclusion. Photographs of her mother, her mother's mother, and her mother's mother's mother are shown in Figs. 2, III, and IV,