Functional appliances are designed to alter the neuromuscular environment of the orofacial region for improving the occlusal and craniofacial development.
These appliances act either by harnessing the muscular force or by preventing aberrant muscular forces from affecting the dentition, better known as the Principle of force application and elimination’. The appliances aim to induce changes in the form and function of the soft and hard tissues.
The mechanism of action of functional appliances is through re-education of muscle, by training the musculature to forget a learned pattern of jaw movement and train it to follow the new, corrected movement.
The appliances like Twin Block and Activator, act through Lateral pterygoid muscle stimulation. These aim to stimulate the LP muscle by subjecting it to strain.
According to the growth relativity hypothesis, the mechanism of condylar-fossa growth modification with propulsive mandibular appliances involves:
- Displacement of the mandible
-Viscoelastic tissue extension forces to the condyle through several different attachments
-Transduction of forces radiating beneath the fibrocartilage of the Glenoid fossa and Condyle.
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