DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2017.v04i06.001

Pages: 254-258

The objective of the study was to evaluate post treatment changes in functional status of masseter & orbicularis oris muscles using ultrasonography in a group of patients with digit sucking habit. Ten patients with digit sucking habit who required habit breaking appliance therapy were selected. Using M-Mode ultrasonography with a 5-12 MHz high frequency linear probe, pre-treatment fractional shortening (FS) values for the masseter (left & right) & orbicularis oris(upper & lower) muscles were calculated following which fixed anti-digit sucking appliances were cemented. At the end of 6 months 6 out of 10 patients had stopped the habit completely. Post treatment fractional shortening (FS) values for the muscles were recorded for all the six patients. Paired ‘t’ test was used for statistical comparison. Fractional shortening value of orbicularis oris- upper showed a mean decrease and those of masseter left, masseter right and orbicularis oris- lower lip showed a mean increase in the post treatment period which were not statistically significant at P<0.05. From the result it was concluded that, M-Mode ultrasonography will be very useful in analyzing changes in functional status of circumolar & masticatory muscles in children having aberrant oral habits so that one can carefully time the orthodontic treatment so as to avoid unnecessary relapse due to muscle malfunctioning.