A long-term prospective evaluation of the circumferential supracrestal fiberotomy in alleviating orthodontic relapse.

This prospective study conducted during a period of nearly 15 years initially involved 320 consecutively selected cases. The primary purpose of the investigation was to statistically evaluate the efficacy of the circumferential supracrestal fiberotomy (CSF) procedure in alleviating dental relapse following orthodontic treatment. The "Irregularity Index" method of Little for measuring the malposition of teeth was used to quantitatively record the relapse of the control and CSF cases at approximately 4 to 6 years after active treatment and again at 12 to 14 years after active treatment. The differences between the mean relapses of the control and the CSF cases were highly significant at both time intervals. The surgical procedure appeared to be somewhat more effective in alleviating pure rotational relapse than in labiolingual relapse. On a long-term basis, the CSF procedure was shown to be more successful in reducing relapse in the maxillary anterior segment than in the mandibular anterior segment. Nevertheless, a significant and unpredictable variation in individual tooth movement following orthodontic treatment was observed in both the control and CSF groups. No clinically significant increase in the periodontal sulcus depth nor decrease in the labially attached gingiva of the CSF teeth was observed at 1 and 6 months following the surgical procedure.