ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT OUTCOMES WITH A PROTOCOL FOR FINISHING: A CONTROLLED CLINiCAL TRIAL

Objectives: To evaluate the results of the implementation of a protocol for finishing in patients who completed treatment in the Orthodontics Graduate Program at the University of Antioquia, under the criteria of the Objective Grading System (OGS) of the American Board of Orthodontics (ABO)
Methods: Study casts and panoramic radiographs of 34 patients were evaluated. These patients built two groups: the intervention group (IG) (17 patients, mean age: 19.9±4.4 years) with an implemented finishing protocol (including training in finishing, following finishing guide, brackets reposition and following of the patient) and a control group (CG), selected with stratified randomization, (17 patients, mean age: 21.9±7.0 years) without finishing protocol. A chi square test for qualitative variables and a t-student unpaired test for quantitative variables were employed. An ANOVA test was applied for total and specific OGS scores (p<0.05).
Results: The mean OGS-scores for the CG and the IG were 38.00±9.0 and 31.41±9.6 (p=0.048) respectively. The scores improved significantly in the IG, mainly for the marginal ridges CG: 5.59±2.2 vs. IG: 3.65±1.8 (p=0.009) and root angulation CG: 7.59±2.8 vs. IG: 4.88±2.6 (p=0.007). The criteria without improvement and the highest scores were alignment CG: 6.35±2.7 vs. IG: 6.82±2.8 (p=0.62) and buccolingual inclination CG: 3.6 ± 5.88 vs. IG: 5.29±3.9 (p = 0.65).
Conclusions: The implementation of a standardized protocol for finishing improved the clinical performance and the occlusal outcomes in the Graduate Orthodontics Program. A greater emphasis should be placed on the finishing phase, especially for improving the criteria with the highest scores.