Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 5088-5096
Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.5088
Clear aligner treatment for a four-year-old patient with anterior cross-bite and facial asymmetry: A case report
Yi-Ran Zou, Zi-Qi Gan, Li-Xing Zhao
Yi-Ran Zou, Li-Xing Zhao, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Zi-Qi Gan, Department of Orthodontics, Hospital of Stomatology, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Guangzhou 510055, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zou YR and Gan ZQ contributed equally to this work; Zhao LX conceived and supervised the case; Zou YR and Gan ZQ performed the treatment and reviewed the literature and wrote the article.
Supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China, No. 31670992, and No. 31271052.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Li-Xing Zhao, DDS, PhD, Associate Professor, Chief Doctor, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, No. 14 Renmin South Road Third Section, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. zhaolixing@scu.edu.cn
Received: December 17, 2021
Peer-review started: December 17, 2021
First decision: February 8, 2022
Revised: February 9, 2022
Accepted: March 26, 2022
Article in press: March 26, 2022
Published online: May 26, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Clear aligners have been widely used to treat malocclusions from crowding, extraction cases to orthodontic-orthognathic cases, and practitioners are exploring the border of it. For the first time, clear aligners were used to early intervene anterior cross-bite and facial asymmetry.

CASE SUMMARY

This case report described a four-year-old child presented with anterior cross-bite and facial asymmetry associated with functional mandibular shift, who had undergone a failed treatment with conventional appliances. The total treatment time was 18 weeks, and a stable outcome was obtained.

CONCLUSION

The increasing need in early treatment highlights the need for clinicians to thoroughly investigate for the patient regarding clinical manifestation as well as patient compliance. We hope that our case will be contemplated by clinicians when seeking for treatment alternatives.

Keywords: Early treatment, Three-dimensional diagnosis and treatment planning, Anterior cross-bite, Functional mandibular shift, Case report

Core Tip: The early treatment for children with anterior cross-bite and facial asymmetry has been widely accepted, while patient cooperation has remained the number one challenge for clinicians. After thorough investigation and planned, we initially applied clear aligner therapy on a four-year-old patient with anterior cross-bite and facial asymmetry. Successful outcome was achieved and remained stable in a 3-year follow-up at the age of 8 in the mix dentition phase. In this manuscript, every detail of our case was discussed.