Abstract
An investigation of overjet values in children exhibiting different forms of soft tissue behaviour during(a) a “conscious” swallowing test and (b) a “water” swallowing test is described and the findings show that both a “teeth apart” swallow and “vigorous” lower lip behaviour on swallowing are each unlikely to have a marked clinical effect on overjet values. A “vigorous” lip contraction on swallowing was found to be associated with a slightly increased mean overjet value compared with a “passive” lip contraction and this finding is statistically significant. The differences between the mean overjet values however were only 0·61 mm in “conscious” swallowing and 0·60 mm in “water” swallowing. It is therefore considered that the “functional” variations in the behaviour of the lips and tongue are unlikely to have any marked clinical effect upon incisor relationships.
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