Dr. Cheol-Ho Paik is a private practitioner at the SAI orthodontic center in the center of Seoul, Korea. He is also a part-time member of the clinical faculty of the Department of Orthodontics, Dental College of Seoul National University. In the U.S., he is a member of the Southern California component of the Angle Society and was a visiting faculty member of the Department of Orthodontics at UCLA and UCSF. He graduated from the dental college of Seoul National University and received orthodontic training and a PhD degree from the Department of Orthodontics of the Dental College of Tsurumi University in Yokohama, Japan. He also holds dental licenses from three countries: Korea, U.S. (California), and Japan.
His main interest is in the field of orthodontic miniscrew implants, and has presented numerous publications and lectures on this topic. He is the first author of the textbook ‘Orthodontic Miniscrew Implants’ published from Mosby/Elsevier. Additionally, he is one of the most frequent contributors to the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics (JCO), because his main area of interest is in this clinical field. His current focus has been the tissue-friendly strategic leveling and facial changes through miniscrew driven molar intrusions. E-mail : chpaik100@gmail.com
Molar Intrusion Using TADs: The Key Element to Correct Vertical Excess with or without Open Bite
Vertical excess can be differentiated into two categories depending on the presence of anterior open bite. They are the vertical excess with anterior open bite and the vertical excess with anterior normal overbite. Anterior open bite can simply be described as a state in which the molar teeth hit first during the mandibular closure and is frequently seen in vertical excess patients.
The two categories differ in the treatment approach. The former category can be treated with the molar intrusion only. Most of these vertical excess with anterior open bites can orthodontically be treated with one or two combinations of the following three modalities: 1) extraction of the premolars and/or 3rd molars 2) orofacial muscle training 3) molar intrusion using the miniscrew implants. Though rare, all three methods are used for the extremely severe cases. For the vertical excess with normal anterior bite patients, intrusion of both the molar and anterior teeth is necessary. This is much more difficult to perform and sometimes, flattening or steepening of the occlusal plane is necessary.
To achieve better treatments result and maximal facial change, clinicians should appropriately plan molar intrusion, being either upper molar intrusion, lower molar intrusion or both the upper and lower molar intrusion for the different vertical excess patients.