Clinical evaluation of chairside band and loop space maintainers

The use of space maintainer in the pediatric population has gained increasing attention from researchers. Chairside space maintainers are single setting technique and they are able to save practice time. The purpose of the study was to compare the clinical performance of chairside and conventional band and loop space maintainers. For this clinical trial, fifteen healthy children between the ages of five and eight years with premature loss of mandibular primary first molars were selected from Pedodontic Clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, Tanta University. For the selected children chairside band and loop was applied in one quadrant and conventional band and loop for the other quadrant. The chairside and conventional band and loop space maintainers were adjusted to fit the abutment tooth tightly and to rest against the anterior abutment tooth at the contact area. Both types were then cemented onto clean, dry abutment tooth with glass ionomer cement. All inserted space maintainers were evaluated for one year. The results showed that, the clinical success rate of chairside band and loop space maintainers was 80% and their mean survival time was11.25months. While conventional band and loop space maintainers showed 73.33% clinical success rate and10.75 months for the mean survival time. The differences, however, were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In conclusion: Chairside band and loop space maintainer can be considered a successful appliance for space maintenance.