REVIEW ARTICLE

I Joss-Vassalli
C Grebenstein
N Topouzelis
A Sculean
C Katsaros
Author's affiliations:
I. Joss-Vassalli, Department of Orthodontics
and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Medical
School, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
C. Grebenstein, Department of Orthodontics
and Oral Biology, Radboud University
Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands
N. Topouzelis, Department of Orthodontics,
School of Dentistry, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
A. Sculean, Department of Periodontology,
Medical School, University of Bern, Bern,
Switzerland
C. Katsaros, Department of Orthodontics
and Oral Biology, Radboud University
Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands, and Department of
Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics,
Medical School, University of Bern, Bern,
Switzerland
Correspondence to:
Dr Isabella Joss-Vassalli
Department of Orthodontics and
Dentofacial Orthopedics
Medical School
University of Bern
Freiburgstr. 7
CH-3010 Bern
Switzerland
E-mail: [email protected]

Orthodontic therapy and gingival

recession: a systematic review

Abstract
Authors Joss-Vassalli I, Grebenstein C, Topouzelis N, Sculean A, Katsaros C
To perform a systematic review on the effect of changes in incisor inclination
owing to orthodontic treatment and the occurrence of gingival recession. PubMed,
EMBASE Excerpta Medica and CENTRAL of the Cochrane Library were searched
and a hand search was performed. From 1925 articles identified, 17 articles were
finally included: six experimental animal studies and 11 retrospective clinical
studies in humans. More proclined teeth compared with less proclined teeth or
untreated teeth had in most studies a higher occurrence or severity of gingival
recession. Contradictory results were found regarding a possible statistically significant correlation between the extent of gingival recession and the amount of
incisor proclination during treatment, width of attached gingiva, hygiene, periodontal condition or thickness of the symphysis. There are no high quality animal
or clinical studies on this topic. Movement of the incisors out of the osseous
envelope of the alveolar process may be associated with a higher tendency for
developing gingival recessions. The amount of recession found in studies with
statistically significant differences between proclined and non-proclined incisors is
small and the clinical consequence questionable. Because of the low level of
evidence of the included studies, the results should be considered with caution.
Further randomized clinical studies including clinical examination of hygiene and
gingival condition before, during and after treatment are needed to clarify the
effect of orthodontic changes in incisor inclination and the occurrence of
gingival recession.
Key words: gingival disease; gingival recession; incisor inclination; orthodontics;
periodontium; tooth movement

Introduction
Dates:
Accepted 1 May 2010
To cite this article:
Joss-Vassalli I, Grebenstein C, Topouzelis N,
Sculean A, Katsaros C:
Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession: a
systematic review
Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141
 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S

The gingiva is defined as the part of the masticatory mucosa which

covers the alveolar process and surrounds the cervical portion of the
teeth (1). According to the International Workshop for a Classification
of Periodontal Diseases and Conditions, the gingival soft tissue recessions on the facial or lingual surfaces or interproximal (papillary) areas
are classified in the group of Development or Acquired Mucogingival
Deformities and Conditions Around Teeth (2) and are defined as the
displacement of the marginal tissue apical to the cemento-enamel

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

junction (AAP 1992). The resulting root exposure is not

esthetically pleasing and may lead to sensitivity and
root caries (3).
Data from a long-term epidemiological study have
shown that in a Western European population
receiving regular dental care with a reasonable level
of oral hygiene, gingival recessions were found in
more than 60% of the younger population (i.e. up to
20 years of age) and in more than 90% of the older
population (>50 years) (4). However, the occurrence
of gingival recessions was significantly higher in a
population without any dental care (4).
Gingival recessions are more frequently observed in
mandibular than in maxillary teeth. With increasing
age, they are more frequent at facial than on lingual
surfaces (5). The main causes for the occurrence of
gingival recessions are related to mechanical factors
or periodontal factors or to inflammatory periodontal
disease (4, 6). Traumatic tooth brushing is one of the
most often factor associated with gingival recessions
(3, 58). An aggressive cleaning technique may lead
to mechanical destruction, which is influenced by
horizontal scrubbing with excessive force and the use
of hard tooth brushes (5). Intra- and perioral piercings may be further causes for the development of
recessions because of the traumatizing effect upon
the tissues (9, 10). Frontolateral bruxism has been
associated with the initiation and or enhancement of
the development of gingival recessions (11). Gingival
recession has also been related to microbially
induced inflammation in periodontal connective
tissue (8).
A further possible etiological factor for gingival
recession is the orthodontic movement of teeth, specially the movement of teeth to positions outside the
labial or lingual alveolar plate, which could lead to
dehiscence formation (12). Whether orthodontic tooth
movement really can cause a gingival recession or
whether the alveolar bone and gingiva adapt to the new
position of the tooth in the absence of other traumatic
factors like vigorous tooth brushing is a controversial
issue. Contradictory statements can be found in the
literature.
The aim of this study was to perform a systematic
review to assess the effect of changes in incisor inclination owing to orthodontic treatment and the occurrence of gingival recession.

128

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

Material and methods

Literature search

A literature search was performed independently by

two reviewers (the first author and the last author)
using the following databases:
PubMed (from 1948 to week 3 of February 2009),
EMBASE Excerpta Medica (from 1980 to week 3 of
February 2009),
CENTRAL of the Cochrane Library (to week 3 of
February 2009).
To identify articles reporting the appearance of gingiva recessions and changes of crown length in the
incisor region related to orthodontic tooth movements.
All articles were found using MeSH searches with the
MeSH terms gingival recession and orthodontics
for PubMed, gingival disease and orthodontics for
EMBASE, gingival recession and orthodontics for
CENTRAL of the Cochrane Library, further tooth
movement and periodontium for PubMed. Articles in
any language were considered. To complete the search,
references of each selected publication were handsearched.
Selection criteria

The following inclusion criteria were chosen initially to

select potential articles from the published abstract
results:
Human controlled or randomized clinical trials and
animal studies.
Studies reporting occurrence of gingival recessions
and crown length changes in the anterior region of
the lower and upper arch in the context of orthodontic labial or palatal tooth movement.
The exclusion criteria were as follows:
Studies concerning impacted teeth or injured anterior teeth.
Studies dealing with pre-orthodontic treatment for
dental restoration.
Medically compromised patients or test animals.
Studies restricting the population to patients or test
animals with severe periodontal diseases or craniofacial anomalies.

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Case reports, descriptive studies, review articles,

opinion articles.
In case of duplicate publications in more languages,
the publication in English language was used.
Data extraction

Data were recorded on specially designed data extraction forms. First abstracts were reviewed without considering the number of patients reported. Articles that
apparently fulfilled the inclusion criteria and articles of
which the title or abstract did not present enough relevant information were obtained in full text. Secondly,
the following data were extracted (if reported) from
full-text articles: year of publication; study design;
method to measure gingiva recession; error analysis;
time since end of orthodontic treatment at outcome
assessment; number, gender and mean age of patients;
ethnical background of patients; orthodontic intervention; treatment duration; existence of a control group
and their description; outcomes regarding gingiva
recessions; correlations between extent or presence of
gingiva recession and different variables such as age,
gender, hygiene, degree of labial or palatinal movement
of the incisors.

Defined diagnosis and endpoints.

Diagnostic reliability tests and reproducibility tests
described.
Grade C: low value of evidence (one or more of the
following conditions):
Large attrition.
Unclear diagnosis and endpoints.
Poorly defined patient material.

Results
Results of search

The search strategy resulted in 1559 articles. The

QUORUM-flow diagram gives an overview of the
selection process (Fig. 1). Hand search of the references revealed 366 studies, from which nine were
selected and studied together with the 105 full-text
articles derived from the electronic search. Finally, a
total of 17 suitable studies (16 articles from the electronic database search and one article from the hand
search) were included.
The 17 articles that met the inclusion criteria were
divided into two groups based on the study design:
animal studies (six studies) and human clinical trials
(11 studies).

Quality assessment
Animal studies

The quality of methodology, statistics, and performance of each study were assessed, and the studies
were graded with a score of AC (Grade A: high value
of evidence, Grade C: low value of evidence) according to predeterminded criteria using the system of
Bondemark (13). They described the criteria for grading
the studies as follows:
Grade A: high value of evidence (all criteria should be
met):
Randomized clinical study or a prospective study
with a well-defined control group.
Defined diagnosis and endpoints.
Diagnostic reliability tests and reproducibility tests
described.
Blinded outcome assessment.
Grade B: moderate value of evidence (all criteria
should be met):
Cohort study or retrospective cases series with
defined control or reference group.

Quality assessment

The six included animal studies were graded as low

value of evidence (Grade C). The reason was the
absence of diagnostic reliability tests.
Study settings

An overview of the experimental set-up of the

included animal studies is given in Table 1. Five of the
studies used a split mouth design (12, 1417) comparing experimental teeth that were moved labially
with not moved control teeth. One study (18) had
three orthodontically treated animals as experimental
group and three untreated animals as control group.
Engelking and Zachrisson (17) utilized the same animals that were used before in the study of Steiner
et al. (15). The lower as well as the upper incisors that
were proclined in the latter study were retracted and
relocated toward their original position in the arches
(17).

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

129

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Fig. 1. Selection process.

All animals in the six selected studies received a

meticulous plaque control, and in two studies additionally (14, 16) Bicillin (benzathine penicillin G) was
administered monthly to minimize plaque formation.
The measurements of gingival recession were made
directly on the teeth in all animal studies. No error
of the method was reported for any of the animal
studies.
Clinical findings

Table 2 gives an overview of the results of the animal

studies regarding gingival recessions.
One study could find neither bone dehiscence nor
gingival recession of the labially moved incisors (16).
Two of the studies (14, 15) diagnosed significantly more
gingival recession on the labial side of the orthodontically proclined teeth than on the control teeth. The
gingival recessions were accompanied by a significant
bone dehiscence. Wennstrom et al. (12) histologically
130

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

determined the apical termination of the junctional

epithelium. They could show that bodily tooth movement resulting in deep and wide dehiscences was not
necessarily accompanied by loss of attachment and
recession. In fact, in eight out of the 10 test teeth the
apical termination of the junctional epithelium was
located at the cemento-enamel junction. The gingival
margin however had been apically displaced at five out
of the 10 test teeth. Batenhorst et al. (14) measured
in the experimental teeth a change of 3.03.4 mm
between the location of the free gingival margin before
and after labial movement. Steiner et al. (15) noticed in
the experimental teeth a lowering of the gingival margin of 0.31.6 mm. The study (15), in which both upper
and lower incisors were moved labially, reported a
significantly higher amount of recession in the lower
arch. After the experiment, the incisors were held in
their exaggerated labioversion position for a period of
8 months, then the animals were used for the study of

240 days
5464 days proclination
Max. 35 cN
32, 31 or 41, 42
old humans

Corresponding 1220 years

2

Not reported.

1974

respectively

Batenhorst et al. (14)

Monkey

0, 30, 60, 120 days

3695 days proclination
Max. 170 cN
31, 41
Adult
4
Male
1976
Wingard and Bowers (16)

Monkey

112 days
50 cN
11, 21, 31, 41
Adult
5
Female
Monkey
1981
Steiner et al. (15)

2 months retraction

3 weeks

46 months
1982
Engelking and Zachrisson (17)

8 months break

112 days proclination

50100 cN
11, 21, 31, 41
Adult
5
Female

450 days
Premolars: 30 cN

50 cN
12, 11, 21, 22
12 months
6

Dog
1983
Thilander et al. (18)

Monkey

150 days

1 month
34 months
Incisors: 50 cN
11, 21, 14, 24
Adult
5

1987
Wennstrom et al. (12)

Monkey

assessment
Age
N
Gender
Species
Year
Author

Table 1. Overview of the experimental design of included animal studies

Teeth moved

Force per tooth

Treatment duration

at outcome

active treatment

Time since end of

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Engelking and Zachrisson (17) and the incisors were

relocated towards their original position. During the
8-month interim period, the recessions continued to
develop and several teeth showed areas of 23 mm
of recession. On the average, the monkeys showed
another 1.01 mm of recession before starting the
retraction of the incisors. During the retraction and
relocation of the incisors as close as possible towards
their original position, the overall bone gain was
2.52 mm for maxillary and 3.11 mm for mandibular
incisors, which corresponded to 50% recovery. The
changes in the soft tissues were, in contrast, negligible.
The gingival margin moved coronally 0.09 mm. There
was no sign of repair of the gingival recessions that had
developed because of the extreme labial advancement.
The amount of gingival recession and bone dehiscence,
the location of the mucogingival junction, and the
connective tissue level were not statistically significantly related to the amount of tooth movement (15).
During the follow-up study in which the incisors were
retracted, Engelking and Zachrisson (17) found a highly
significant relationship between the amount of tooth
movement and increase in marginal bone level. With
regard to changes in the level of gingival margin, there
were no statistically significant relationships to the
amount of tooth movement. No statistically significant
relationship existed between tooth movement and
position of the mucogingival junction or width of the
keratinized gingiva (17).
One study (18) compared the situation between
facially moved teeth, teeth that following facial
displacement were moved back in their original position, and teeth not moved at all. Dehiscences developed in the buccal alveolar bone by moving the teeth in
a facial direction, so that after facial displacement the
marginal bone crest was located at approximately
mid-root level. The bone dehiscences of the teeth that
were moved back to their original position recovered
completely. The apical termination of the epithelial
junction was in all test and control teeth at the
cemento-enamel junction. This implies that no gingival
recession arose during treatment neither for the facially
displaced and moved back incisors nor for incisors that
were moved only facially.
Three studies compared the width of the keratinized respectively attached gingiva between the displaced teeth and the control teeth. No difference was
found in the width of the keratinized gingiva between
Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

131

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Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

+ 3.35 mm

Wingard and Bowers (16)

+6 mm

Proclination of the incisors versus

no movement

Range: 1.81.9 mm

than upper)

Pre-experimental exploratory surgery

Arch (lower arch more recessions

Amount of tooth movement,

no movement,

Amount of tooth movement

Proclination of the incisors versus

+ 1.9 mm*

No recession

+1.01 0.4 mm*

recessions)

prior developed gingival

)0.09 0.40 mm (no signs of repair of

No recession

Range: 01.5 mm

, average.

Not reported.
*Statistically significant more gingival recession in displaced incisors than in control teeth (Steiner et al., 15, Batenhorst et al., 14).

Batenhorst et al. (14)

+3.05 0.8 mm

Steiner et al. (15)

Range: 2.15 mm

)1.83 0.88 mm

Engelking and Zachrisson (17)

+ 3.3 mm

Wennstrom et al. (12)

Thilander et al. (18)

Initial width of keratinized gingiva

): decrease of recession

of incisors

Author
+ 0.40 mm

not statistically related to

is statistically related to

+: increase of recession

(+) or retroclination ())

Extend occurrence of recession is

Extend occurrence of recession

Gingiva recession

Degree of proclination

Table 2. Results of included animal studies

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

displaced and control teeth (12, 15), whereas Batenhorst et al. (14) found that the width of the attached
gingiva increased on the facial surfaces of all experimental teeth, but it remained about the same on the
controls.
Human studies
Quality assessment

Three included human studies were graded as low

value of evidence (Grade C). The reason was the
absence of diagnostic reliability tests (1921) and
unclear endpoints (19). The remaining eight studies were graded as moderate value of evidence (Grade
B).
Study settings

An overview of the experimental set-up of the included

human studies is given in Table 3. Two studies used
untreated persons as control group (20, 22). Five of the
included studies compared groups with different
degrees of inclination of the lower or upper incisors as
result of the orthodontic treatment (21, 2326). Two
studies had no control group (27, 28). For better
understanding, it should be added that the study of
Allais and Melsen (22) as well as the study of Melsen
and Allais (27) is based on the same test group of 150
treated patients. Dorfman (19) selected 24 patients
after evaluation of 1150 patients. The 24 selected
patients had at the beginning of treatment a height of
keratinized gingiva smaller than 2 mm in the lower
incisor region. These 24 patients were divided in two
groups: the one group showed an increase in the width
of keratinized gingiva, the second group showed a
decrease in the width of keratinized gingiva during
treatment. Dorfman (19) compared the two groups.
Ngan et al. (29) divided their 20 patients with more
than 1 mm labial recession on one or more mandibular central incisor before treatment in two groups:
one group received autogenous gingival graft in the
area of recession prior orthodontics, the second group
(control group) had no graft before orthodontics (in
both groups the incisors were retroclined during
treatment).
Pearson (20), Dorfman (19) and Sperry (21) did not
mention anything about the oral situation of their
probands. Djeu et al. (25) excluded the variable
hygiene because it was not consistently reported in
the records. In the studies of Allais and Melsen (22, 27),

the visible plaque accumulation and gingival

inflammation on intraoral slides were recorded.
Ruf et al. (24) described the oral hygiene of all
subjects as good throughout the treatment without
specifying how they came to this conclusion.
In the study of Ngan et al. (29), the oral hygiene was
determined for each selected tooth before and after
treatment; fair to poor hygiene was maintained by the
patients. In three studies, the hygiene condition was
scored at the clinical follow-up (23, 26, 28).
In all but one study the gingival recessions were
determined from intraoral slides. If the linear changes
in gingival recession were searched, the approach was
as follows: Measurements of the recessions were made
on the projected image of intraoral slides at the midline
of the facial surface of the selected tooth. Afterwards, to
determine the actual linear changes in gingival recession, extrapolation was performed by dividing the
measured length of the clinical crown from the study
cast by the measured length of the clinical crown from
the projected slide. In the study of Pearson (20), the
gingival recessions were identified only on plaster
casts.
Several studies had also clinical measurements at
follow-up (21, 23, 26, 28).
In all studies, except the three older studies (1921),
the error of the method was assessed.
Clinical findings

Table 4 gives an overview of the results of the human

studies regarding gingival recessions.
The two studies concerning orthodontic labial
movement of lower incisors and occurrence of gingival
recession comparing treated and untreated persons
found out that significant greater recession was demonstrated in the treated cases (20), and the prevalence
of individuals with gingival recession was significant
higher in treated cases (22).
The four studies comparing patient groups of more
or less proclination of the lower incisors during treatment (2326) showed that more proclined teeth had
generally bigger gingival recession or the development
of new recession was more frequent relative to the nonproclined or less proclined teeth, and in one of these
studies the difference was statistically significant (26).
Sperry et al. (21) compared a test group of orthodontically treated cases of mandibular prognathism by
dental compensation with a control-group of Class I
Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

133

134

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

2006

2005

2003

2002

2001

1998

1991

Yared et al. (28)

Melsen and Allais (27)

Allais and Melsen (22)

Djeu et al. (25)

Artun and Grobety (23)

Ruf et al. (24)

Ngan et al. (29)

Artun and Krogstad (26) 1987

Year

Author

C: 150

Female N = 114

White N = 56

N=4

Americans

Asian

C: 30

Female N = 30

98
Second part:
T: 16

Male N = 67
Female N = 31
Second part:

32, 31, 41, 42

32, 31, 41, 42

31, 41

Teeth analysed

C: 27.9 4.6 years

C: 33

postoperative)

(3 years

T: 28.8 5.9 years

12 years

12.8 1.4 years

10 years

32, 31, 41, 42

31, 41

32, 31, 41, 42

32, 31, 41, 42

T + C: 16.4 years 31, 41

C:

T: 33.7 9.5 years

33.7 9.5 years

1833 years

Age

T: 29

C: 10

Female N = 12

T: 10

Male N = 8

C: 17

First part:

First part:

Female N = 21

C: Male N = 9

T: 45

T: Male N = 15

C: 27

Female N = 39

Americans
N=7

T: 40

T+C: Male N = 28

C:

T: 150

T: Male N = 36

150

34

African

White

Female N = 114

Male N = 36

White

Gender

Race

Table 3. Overview of the experimental design of included human studies

C: 0 g

T: 1525 g

1525 g

tooth

Force per

24 months

appliance)

(+ fixed

Herbst

7 months

4 years

C: 8.1 years (post surgery)

T: 7.8 years

Immediately after treatment

recession)

after Herbst (gingiva

(incisor inclination); 6 months

Immediately after Herbst

C: 9.38 years

T: 7.83 years

treatment

33.2 months Immediately after

1 month

1 month

747 months

assessment

treatment at outcome

Time since end of active

duration

Treatment

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Immediately after treatment

31, 41

, average; T, test group; C, control group.

Not reported.

C: 27

12 years
T: 45
1968
Pearson (20)

31, 41, 42, 43

C: 17.1 years
C: 32

22, 23, 33, 32,

T: 26.7 years
C: 8

1977
Sperry et al. (21)

T: 36

13, 12, 11, 21,

C: 2.1 years

T: 9.2 years

Immediately after treatment

28 months

32, 31, 41, 42

1015 years

1978
Dorfman (19)

T: 16

assessment
duration
Gender
Race
Year
Author

Table 3. Continued

Age

Teeth analysed

tooth

treatment at outcome
Force per

Treatment

Time since end of active

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

and II orthodontically treated patients. The test group

had compared with the control-group more proclined
upper incisors and retroclined lower incisors. The test
group had significant more teeth with gingival recession, particularly in the lower arch.
Two studies had no control group:
Yared et al. (28) observed that patients with final
inclination of more than 95 between mandibular plane
and long axis of incisors showed greater and more
severe recessions of the mandibular incisors (for the
mandibular right central incisor, this behavior reached
statistical significance). They concluded that the final
inclination of the mandibular central incisors is a much
more important factor than the total amount of proclination of these teeth.
Melsen and Allais (27) comparing the gingival situation of their patients before and after treatment with
fixed appliance and proclination of lower incisors
demonstrated that the increase in the prevalence of
gingival recession during treatment was significant, but
the increase in the mean gingival recession was not
significant.
Dorfman (19) described in his study that the 16
patients with decrease in the width of keratinized
gingiva demonstrated marked gingival recession. Their
incisors moved either negligibly or somewhat labially
during treatment. However, the eight patients with
increase in keratinized gingiva exhibited a significant
amount of lingual tooth movement. Ngan et al. (29)
found out that teeth presenting true gingival recession
had statistically less gingival recession after being
retroclined (with no difference between grafted and
ungrafted recessions). A further important finding
between the relation of lower incisor proclination and
gingival recession is that no statistically significant
difference was observed during the period from 3-yearpost-operative control to time of follow-up examination (about 8 years post-surgery) (26).
Melsen and Allais (27) found out that the presence of
gingival inflammation correlated significantly with
development or increase in gingival recession, but it
was not the case for the presence of plaque. Yared et al.
(28) on the other hand, affirmed that no correlation
could be found between the variables of general and
mandibular central incisor periodontal condition at the
follow-up examination (plaque index, gingival bleeding
index and probing pocket depth) with gingival recession in this area.
Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

135

136

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

Djeu et al. (25)

Tooth 42:

C: 0 mm

Skeletal or dental relationship

Pretreatment gingival inflammation

Sex
Race
Treatment duration
Extraction
Treatment type

T: +0.04 0.17 mm
C: +0.02 0.11 mm
Tooth 41:
T: +0.10 0.32 mm
C: +0.07 0.28 mm

Angle classification

Age

Tooth 31:

Amount of proclination

C: )4.37 6.21

Change in gingival recession:

with no treatment)

Proclination of lower incisors (compared

Sex

Pretreatment width of keratinized gingiva

Plaque

Age

Amount of change in arch length

Pretreatment gingival biotype

Presence of baseline recession

T: +5.03 6.37

C: 0.2 0.71 mm

T: 0.4 0.86 mm

Tooth 32*:

C: 0.3 0.83 mm

T: 0.3 0.81 mm

Tooth 31:

C: 0.3 0.8 mm

T: 0.4 0.86 mm

Tooth 41*:

C: 0.2 0.62 mm

T: 0.3 0.83 mm

Total amount:

T: +3.4 2.6 mm

(pretreatment: 0.20 0.68 mm)

Allais and Melsen (22)

Total amount: 0.34 0.69 mm

+ 3.4 mm

Range: 0.512 mm

Gingival bleeding index

Final inclination >95

median: 0 mm)

Melsen and Allais (27)

Plaque index

Height of keratinized tissue <2 mm

Median: 0 mm (pretreatment,

Probing pocket depth

Amount of labial movement

Free gingival margin <0.5 mm

Total amount: 02.48 mm

+5.85 3.92

Yared et al. (28)

not statistically related to

statistically related to

retroclination ()) of incisors

): decrease

Extend occurrence of recession is

Extend occurrence of recession is

+: increase

recession crown length

change in gingiva

Total amount of recession or

Author

Degree of proclination (+) or

Table 4. Results of included human studies

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

 rtun and Krogstad (26)

A

Ngan et al. (29)

Ruf et al. (24)

T: 0.27 0.52 mm

C: +1.67 3.42

First part:
Tooth 32: )0.1 0.6 mm
Tooth 31 + 41: +0.1 0.5 mm
Tooth 42: )0.1 0.5 mm

Range: 0.519.5

Second part:

T: +16.4 1.9

C: +2.7 1.7

-> less recession

T: )1.03 mm

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

proclination C-group)
Width of symphysis in T-group

T: +0.76 0.62 mm
C: +0.31 0.35 mm

C: <2

(after 3 years)

More proclination T-group (vs. less

Crown length changes:

T: >10

C: )0.96 mm

Retroclination of lower incisors

Change in gingival recession:

reported)

Width of symphysis in C-group

Retroclination (extent not

C: )0.1 0.6 mm

T: +0.1 0.5 mm

Tooth 42:

C: +0.2 0.4 mm

T: +0.3 0.6 mm

Tooth 41:

C: +0.1 0.5 mm

T: +0.1 0.6 mm

Tooth 31:

C: )0.1 0.6 mm

T: +0.2 1 mm

Tooth 32:

Second part:

Crown length changes:

First part: + 8.9

C: 0.17 0.32 mm

Total amount:

T: +9.98 5.56

statistically related to

): decrease

rtun and Grobety (23)

A

Extend occurrence of recession is

recession crown length

+: increase

retroclination ()) of incisors

Degree of proclination (+) or

change in gingiva

Total amount of recession or

Author

Table 4. Continued

Preorthodontic gingival grafting

Amount of proclination

Gender

Amount of proclination

Width of symphysis in T-group,

not statistically related to

Extend occurrence of recession is

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

137

138

Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

recession per patient

C:

(tipping, torque, translation)

Overbite

of apex (extent not reported)

retraction

Amount of root apex advancement or

Different types of incisal movements

amount not reported*

Orthodontic treatment (versus no treatment)

lower incisors)

(proclination upper incisors, retroclination

Dental compensation in Kl.III patients

C: 52% had labial movement

of apex

T: significantly greater recession,

C: 0.6 teeth with labial gingival

Mandibular incisors: )3.5 5.2

T: 71% had labial movement

recession per patient

T: 1.9 teeth with labial gingival

Maxillary incisors: +4.9 6.8

T:

T, test group; C, control group.

*T-group had significantly greater recession than C-group [Allais and Melsen (22), Pearson (20)].

Not reported.

Significantly less gingival recession in both groups after retroclination, but no difference between T-group and C-group Ngan et al. (29).

rtun and Krogstad, 26).

Significantly more increase in clinical crown length in T-group than in C-group (A

T-group had significantly more teeth with recessions than C-group (Sperry et al. (21).

Pearson (20)

Sperry et al. (21)

Range: )11 to +7

C: )1

amount not reported

Range: )13 to +14

T: marked gingival recession,

T: + 1.4

Dorfman (19)

): decrease

Extend occurrence of recession is

not statistically related to

Extend occurrence of recession is

statistically related to

+: increase

retroclination ()) of incisors

Degree of proclination (+) or

recession crown length

change in gingiva

Total amount of recession or

Author

Table 4. Continued

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

The presence of baseline recession correlated significantly with development or increase in gingival
recession (27).
Yared et al. (28) noted that recession was more frequent when the height of keratinized tissue was
<2 mm, and 93% of the incisors that developed recession had thicknesses of the free gingival margin
<0.5 mm at the follow-up examination. Thickness had
greater relevance to recession than final inclination of
the incisors.
Melsen and Allais (27) found a significant correlation
between the pre-treatment width of keratinized gingiva
and gingival biotype and the development or increase
in the ginigval recession.

Discussion
A notable finding was that none of the selected
studies were graded A (high value of evidence). All
the animal studies and four human studies were
graded as a low value of evidence (Grade C), seven
human studies had a moderate value of evidence
(Grade B). Summary of the scientific value of the
included studies is limited.
The major weak point of the included human
studies compared with the animal studies is related
to the retrospective study design used. The examinations of clinical data like gingival height, gingival
biotype, gingival recession or width of attached
gingiva could only be carried out on intraoral slides
or plaster casts. McComb (30) questioned the results
of studies that measured clinical crown height on
study casts to evaluate periodontal recession because
of the reduced tooth height of the cast caused by
attrition or fractures. Just four human trials included
also clinical measurements of the gingival parameters
but only at the follow-up examination (21, 23, 26, 28).
It is quite difficult to draw conclusions based on
these findings. A prospective study design with clinical examinations before, during and after treatment
would give more precise information about the
interaction of orthodontic tooth proclination and the
development of gingival recession.
A further weakness of most included studies is the
short time period between the end of active treatment
and the evaluation of the outcomes. If the records are
taken immediately after debanding, the periodontal

measurements may be affected, by often observed

gingival inflammation and swelling, because of difficulty in oral hygiene during treatment (31). On the
other hand, if the observation period is too long,
cumulative treatment-independent periodontal problems may arise, which in turn may also affect the
rtun and Krogstad (26) suggested an obserresults. A
vation time of 3 years, because up to 3 years the
clinical crown height increased significantly more in
the patients with excessive proclination than in the
patients with minimal change in incisors inclination
after the first 3 years the difference between the groups
were not more significant.
The selected studies had quite different study settings and they focused on different aspects of the
relation between incisor inclination and recession. The
treatment durations, the forces applied, the control
groups, or the degree of movement varied highly. The
different results reported from the 17 studies cannot be
pooled or compared directly.
Most studies investigated the correlation between the
change in incisor inclination and the development of
gingival recession in a patient group or they compared
two patient groups with more or less proclination
during treatment regarding recession. Two animal
studies found statistically significant more gingival
recession in displaced incisors than in control teeth (14,
15). Five human studies found statistically significant
differences in the extension of recessions or the number of teeth with recession after changing the inclination of the incisors or comparing the T-group with the
C-group (2022, 26, 29). It seems possible that orthodontic therapy involving movement of the incisors out
of the osseous envelope of the alveolar process constitutes a risk that recession of the gingiva may result.
More proclination during treatment may be
accepted for a low initial inclination than for a high
initial inclination. Indeed, Yared et al. (28) showed
that a final lower incisor inclination of more than 95
in relation to the mandibular plane was directly
related to more frequent and more severe recession in
the mandibular central incisors; the amount of
proclination was not important but the final inclination. Future studies should consider both the amount
of proclination during treatment and the final
inclination.
Treatment duration, treatment type, the skeletal or
dental relationship, age, sex or race did not have an
Orthod Craniofac Res 2010;13:127141

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Joss-Vassalli et al. Orthodontic therapy and gingival recession

influence on the development of recessions during

treatment. Presence of gingival inflammation and
baseline recession (27), a thin gingival biotype (27, 28),
a narrow width of keratinized gingiva (19, 27, 28) or a
thin symphysis (26) were found to correlate significantly with the development or increase in gingival
recession.

Conclusion
There are no high-quality animal or clinical studies on
this topic. The major reason for the low level of evidence in the animal as well as in the human studies is
the lack of diagnostic reliability tests. Animal studies
tend to suggest more gingival recession in displaced
incisors than in control teeth. Clinical studies showed
that more proclined teeth compared with less proclined
teeth or untreated teeth and movement of the incisors
out of the osseous envelope of the alveolar process may
be associated with a higher tendency for developing
gingival recessions. Because of the low level of evidence
of the included studies, the results should be considered with caution. In addition, the amount of recession
found in studies with statistically significant differences
between proclined and not proclined incisors is small
and the clinical consequence questionable.
Further prospective, randomized clinical studies
including clinical examination of hygiene and gingival
condition before, during and after treatment are
needed to clarify the effect of orthodontic changes in
incisor inclination and the occurrence of gingival
recession.

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