OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to retrospectively compare the postretention stability of maxillary anterior incisors alignment in Class I and Class II patients. METHODS: The sample comprised 38 patients of both genders, treated with nonextraction and Edgewise mechanics, divided into two groups: Group 1, comprised of 19 patients, at a mean age of 13.06 years, with Class I malocclusion and initial maxillary anterior crowding greater than 3 mm; Group 2, comprised of 19 patients, at a mean age of 12.54 years, with Class II malocclusion, and also with a initial maxillary anterior crowding greater than 3 mm. In the dental casts of pretreatment, posttreatment and postretention phase, the Little's irregularity index, intercanine distance and distance between first and between second premolars, intermolar distance and maxillary arch length were measured. For intragroup comparison among the three times of evaluation, it was used the one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test. Intergroup comparison was performed by independent t tests. To verify the presence of correlation, the Pearson correlation test was used. RESULTS: It was evidenced greater stability of treatment in Group 2 (Class II), because during the postretention period it was observed a softer relapse of maxillary anterior crowding in Group 2 (0.80mm) than in Group 1 (1.67mm). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the treatment of maxillary anterior crowding is more stable in Class II malocclusion than in Class I malocclusion.
Maxillary anterior crowding; Posttreatment stability
