Morphology of Maxillary Frenum and Correlation to Diastema in Children with Primary, Mixed, and Permanent Dentition

Abstract

Context: The labial frenum is subject to change with growing age and physical development. It is thought to be a contributing factor to maxillary diastema. Aims: The study aims to check the frenal morphology and midline diastema at different stages of dentition. Materials and methods: Clinical examination of frenum and midline diastema of 515 children with different stages of dentition was carried out. Sewerin's typology and Placek et al.'s classification for attachment level were used. Results: Association was found significant for both spacing (p = 0.001) and midline diastema (p = 0.018). Morphology of frenum, which was prevalent for all three types of dentition, was simple frenum and mucosal type of attachment in primary (47.1%) and permanent (37.6%), whereas it was gingival in mixed dentition (44.3%). The association between dentition and morphology and frenum attachment was found to be significant (p = 0.024 and 0.001, respectively). Crosstabulation for midline diastema with morphology and frenum attachment was found to be highly significant (p = 0.001). Conclusion: As the type of frenal attachment differs depending on the type of dentition, it is crucial to comprehend the relationship between a child's age, the type of frenal attachment, and the morphology in order to prevent misdiagnosis and inconsequential treatment.

Keywords

• diastema
• incisor
• labial frenum